Paralympic Gold For Hunter Woodhall In T62 400m Final

SAINT-DENIS, France – Arkansas alum Hunter Woodhall delivered a gold medal performance in the T62 400m final at Stade de France on Friday with a winning time of 46.36 seconds.

“I have the best team in the world,” stated Woodhall in a postrace interview with NBC’s Lewis Johnson. “I couldn’t have done it without them. It’s been so hard to keep the emotions under control with everything that’s gone on in the past few weeks.”

Later in the evening session Woodhall added a relay bronze medal to his collection as a member of the United States squad in the 4 x 100m Universal relay.

Woodhall ran the second leg on the relay as Team USA produced a time of 47.32 in finishing behind a world record of 45.07 set by China and a European record of 46.01 for Great Britain.

In the 400m final, Woodhall raced in lane six adjacent to Tokyo gold medalist Johannes Floors of Germany in lane seven. Floors is the world record holder in the event with a 45.78 from 2019 as well as the Paralympic record holder with a 45.85 from 2021. In addition to his Paralympic gold, Floors has also won the past two World titles in the event in 2023 (Paris) and 2024 (Kobe, Japan).

Heading into the final, Woodhall had a better time in 2024 with 46.09 while Floors had run 47.49. Both had great starts in the race with Floors holding an edge through the first 200m. Then as they reached 300m, with Olivier Hendriks of the Netherlands a stride back in lane five, Woodhall moved past Floors and extended his lead to the finish line.

“I didn’t know it was mine until I crossed the finish line,” noted Woodhall. “It still doesn’t feel real. We planned to go out and run an easy 250m, then bring it home. That’s what I did today.”

After 400m Paralympic bronze in 2016 and 2020 along with 200m silver in 2016, Woodhall finally earned an elusive gold medal with his time of 46.36 over a season best of 46.90 for Floors and a career best of 46.91 by Hendriks, the Tokyo silver medalist. Another American in the final, Blake Leeper, finished fourth in a career best of 47.32.

PARALYMPIC MEDALISTS

U of A athletes and alumni have medaled six times in Paralympics through the years:

2024
Hunter Woodhall – T62 400-meter dash – Gold
Hunter Woodhall – 4x100-meter universal relay – Bronze

2020
Hunter Woodhall – 400-meter dash – Bronze

2016
Hunter Woodhall – 200-meter dash – Silver
Hunter Woodhall – 400-meter dash – Bronze

2000
John Register — Paralympics long jump — Silver