Corrections_Today_Summer_2025_Vol.87_No.2

able to walk. My parents, through prayer and talk ing to family and friends, decided on amputation. Luckily for me it turned out to be the best deci sion of my life.” President Robinson asked about how the pair deal with high pressure situations. Tara detailed her career, from beginning col lege at Georgia to transferring and along with the COVID-19 outbreak, not being able to complete for several years. “I went 600 days without competing. I started track and field when I was 4 years old so my whole life had been around track and competing, that’s my identity. In those years I completely lost sight of who I was because I couldn’t express myself,” she said. Tara shared her struggles with her mental health and how she managed to fight through “I just could have stopped but I kept moving for ward,” she related. Hunter related how the pair faced the unique demands of athletic competition. “My whole life I’ve been told that I am a good person when I’m doing good at my profession. We had to sit down and ask ourselves do we even want to be doing this sport? The answer was never the result. It wasn’t to win the gold medal. It was because this was our passion this is what we love to do,” he said.

The Woodhall’s described how different the ex perience was from Tara’s first Olympics in Tokyo to the joyous time they had in Paris. “It brought so much a sense of joy of community and that’s what sports is about.,” Tara recalled. Summing up, the pair told the crowd their main advice was to continue to move forward. “It’s easy to assign your value to the current situation you are but having an outlook of what possible for the future can really motivate you,” Hunter said. They finished up with some questions from the audience and were delighted to talk about their dogs Milo and Winnie.

— BY KIRK RAYMOND

Summer 2025 | Corrections Today

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