Credit: Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Llywelyn Williams had his leg amputated when he was 16 after a car hit him while he was skateboarding
- Since then, the professional para surfer has won four ISA World Championships and dozens of other medals around the world
- “Disability for me has elevated my life — anything is possible if you have any kind of disability,” the U.K. athlete said
David Williams remembers 2011, when his teen son, Llywelyn Williams, was “nearly dead” after a car hit the then-teenager while he was skateboarding.
Llywelyn, who was 16 at the time, suffered severe injuries — a shattered pelvis, split liver, dislocated hips and collapsed lungs — as well as the loss of his right leg above the knee, Llywelyn shared in a recap of his life and career.
Recalling his surfer son’s life-changing moment, David said in the BBC documentary Our Lives: Beyond the Waves, “To think he was nearly dead on the side of the road when the accident happened ... to being the world champion. Once he got his first wave back, there was no stopping him.”
Llywelyn, now in his early 30s, has four adaptive surfing world championship titles to his name.
The U.K. athlete told the BBC he felt like he was “born again” when he “got back in the ocean” after his leg was amputated.
“From the moment I woke up in the hospital, my goal was clear — I was going to surf again and come back stronger than ever,” Llywelyn wrote in his recap. “As I emerged from my coma, I told my friend Will that I was determined to return to the water and surf better than before.”
He added, “My hospital room became my motivation, decorated with images of waves, surf culture and the familiar scent of Sex Wax air fresheners, making it the best-smelling room in the hospital.”
In the BBC doc, Llywelyn’s mom, Eirian Parry, recalled the “beautiful moment” that her son’s friends carried him into the water after the amputation.
Nearly 15 years after the car accident, the professional para surfer has since won four ISA World Championships and earned more than 50 medals at other competitions around the world.
Credit: Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty
Most recently, Llywelyn won the Bright Sky Australian Pro Adaptive Surfing Championship as the kneeling champion in March, and he finished third at the North Shore Prosthetics Hawaiian Surfing Championships in May.
“Disability for me has elevated my life — anything is possible if you have any kind of disability,” the surfer told the BBC.
Our Lives: Beyond the Waves is available to watch now.
Read the original article on People