TikTok star Hunter Woodhall, arguably the most recognizable face of the Paralympic Games thanks to his widely followed social media platforms, won gold in his signature 400-meter T62 race Friday.
Woodhall broke ahead in the final stretch of the race and finished in 46.36 seconds, easily beating his opponents (silver recorded 46.90 seconds, and bronze 46.91 seconds). He entered the race with the fastest time this season among the competitors at 46.09 seconds.
In the Paralympics, a T62 classification means all athletes have amputations below the knees on both legs and use prostheses to compete. Other classifications include other types of lower limb impairments, as well as vision, intellectual, upper limb, and coordination impairments.
Woodhall has earned a massive audience on social media, where he posts content about running, his disability, and his relationship with his wife, Olympic gold–medal long-jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall. His largest platform is TikTok, where he has 3.3 million followers. Over on Instagram, he has more than 760,000 followers. Davis-Woodhall has 1.1 million Instagram followers and more than 810,000 TikTok followers, while the couple’s shared accounts have 870,000 subscribers on YouTube, nearly 600,000 followers on Instagram, and 255,000 followers on TikTok.
Woodhall immediately ran to find his spouse after the race, which she also did after her gold medal performance in a moment that went viral on social media.
Woodhall told Front Office Sports in July that social media has helped raise the profile of the Paralympic Games.
“This year is just so much excitement, so much hype, so many people that I have conversations with that know what the Paralympics is,” he said. “So much less educating. And I think that is a really big sign that, hey, people are starting to understand and get behind this idea.”
Woodhall also competed in the men’s 100-meter T64 race in Paris, placing sixth after finishing three-tenths of a second behind the winner.
He picked up another medal about 90 minutes after his 400-meter gold Friday, running the second leg on the United States’ bronze-winning 4×100 meter universal relay team. The relay was open to athletes from any classification.
He ran for Team USA in both Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, earning silver and bronze in 2016 and bronze in 2021. Earlier this year, the sprinter took home silver in the 400-meter T62 race at the World Championships.
