An Alabama teenager who lost an arm and a leg in a shark attack is redefining what it means to be a successful athlete. More than a year after that life-altering moment on a Florida beach, Lulu Gribbin is not only alive but pushing herself toward goals few could imagine — including a run at the Paralympics.

Gribbin, now 16, was on a summer trip with her mother and twin sister in June 2024 when she and a group of friends were swimming at Seacrest Beach in Walton County, Florida, just beyond the first sandbar, when she heard a scream. A shadow passed by in the water. Then came the realization: her left hand was gone.

She doesn’t remember pain, only the shock of seeing what had happened. “I just remember being like, ‘Whoa.’ I looked down and I was like, ‘This is really happening,’” she told ABC’s Good Morning America this week. Moments later, she was pulled to shore, slipping in and out of consciousness as her sister Ellie tried to keep her calm.

Doctors later amputated her right leg above the knee. She had lost two-thirds of the blood in her body. For days her survival was uncertain. But after multiple surgeries, including a targeted muscle reinnervation procedure that helps patients better control prosthetic limbs, she began to recover. Two months in the hospital was only the beginning of a long process of healing.

Today, Lulu talks about gratitude more than fear. She tells her story not as a tragedy, but as proof that she has more living to do. “I was grateful that I got to wake up that morning,” she said, reflecting on the hours after the attack. That attitude, more than anything, has carried her forward.

Sports have been central to her recovery. She has taken up golf with the help of adaptive attachments for her prosthetics. She has relearned how to run. She has even returned to the water, this time behind a boat as a slalom waterskier. Now she’s setting her sights on track and field — with dreams of one day competing in the Paralympics. “That’s one of my goals,” she said. “Why not?”

There is an almost casual determination in her words, a teenager’s mix of nonchalance and ambition. But underneath is a remarkable story of willpower and community. Lulu’s strength, she says, comes not just from herself but from her family and the network that rallied around her after the attack. “I’m focused on getting better not only for myself, but for them,” she said.

It’s the kind of resilience that can’t be taught, only earned. For Lulu, what could have been the end of her story is shaping up to be the beginning of something else entirely — a future built not around loss, but possibility.