TARA Davis-Woodhall’s epic victory in the Olympic long jump final produced one of the most emotional moments of the Paris Games.
The Team USA star leaped into the arms of her husband Hunter Woodhall, the Paralympic track and field athlete, who was watching from the stands.
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The power couple both broke down in tears as Tara celebrated her gold medal glory with a leap of 7.10 meters.
“Oh my god, baby,” Hunter exclaimed.
“You’re the Olympic champion!”
Tara later revealed she almost “blacked out” while embracing her husband.
“It was such a relief and a ‘finally’ moment,” Tara told NBC.
“I was just looking into his eyes and I didn’t know where I was.
“I almost blacked out for a second and he just made the moment so much more special.”
Hunter inspired Tara with some words of encouragement before the Olympic long jump final.
“Tomorrow you contend for the Olympic Title. I’m so humbled by you. You have battled through so much just to give yourself a chance,” he wrote on Instagram.
“You’ve inspired so many with your authenticity. Showing it’s OK to struggle, it’s OK to not always be OK.”
He added: “Through everything you continued to fight for your dream.
“No one has worked harder. No one has been more disciplined. You inspire me every day to be great.
“Tomorrow is your moment. Enjoy every bit of it. You are ready.”
Hunter and Tara are fast becoming one of the power couples of USA Track and Field thanks to their engaging personalities and massive social media presence.
The couple have 784,000 followers on their YouTube channel, in which they provide an insight into their lives on and off the track.
They also have hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, which has secured a number of lucrative sponsorship deals to help fund their Olympic dreams.
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The couple, who live in Arkansas, first met at an indoor track meet in Pocatello, Idaho.
Tara did not notice that Hunter was wearing prosthetics as he was wearing sweatpants.
And she was immediately taken by him.
“I stepped onto the track and said, ‘I don’t know why I have to do this, but I have to give you a hug,’ ” Davis told Town & Country.
“And that was the first time we talked.”
Hunter, for his part, thought “I’m gonna marry that girl,” following their first encounter.
The Paralympian was born with a birth defect that left him without fibulas in either leg.
When he was 11 months old, he was given amputations below each knee.
After being given a pair of prosthetics, Hunter soon emerged as a track and field star.
He won silver and bronze medals at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in the 200 and 400 meters aged 17.
And University of Arkansas soon made him the first double amputee to earn a Division I scholarship in track.
Tara, meanwhile, made a name for herself in high school when she broke a 24-year-old record set by Marion Jones with a jump of 6.73 meters.
At the University of Georgia, Tara broke the world under-20 record in the 60m hurdles with a time of 7.98 seconds at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships, where she also finished third in the long jump.
She then transferred to the University of Texas where she set a collegiate record with a long jump of 7.14 meters in 2021.
Hunter is now aiming to follow in Tara’s footsteps after securing one silver and two bronzes at Rio and Tokyo.
“We’ll be back,” Tara added.
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“This is not the end of the Olympic season. We have the Paralympics in two weeks; make sure you guys are watching [and] tune in.
“Hunter’s gonna do something crazy.”
The couple lives and trains together and inspire each other to greater success.
“We’re in the weight room every day. We’re pushing each other, we’re keeping each other accountable,” Hunter told The U.S Sun.
“And we’re also helping to keep the process and journey of this more enjoyable for each other.
“We have fun together, we love being outside and in the sun together. And when we come home, we cook together and focus on our recovery.
“I think if we had to do it on our own we would skip those little annoying things that you don’t want to do and with each other we make sure it gets done.”
And they are hugely excited by the opportunities that await them in Paris.
“A lot of times you can be excited about what is coming up next and you forget that this is one of those moments that you’ve dreamed about and talked about for so long,” Hunter says.
“We’re just going to be there for each other, support each other, have fun and just execute.
“We’re competing at the biggest sporting event in the world – it’s once in a lifetime.”
