Shea Foster took a deep breath, thinking about the weight of the question before answering. How much has adversity shaped his life? He smiled, revealing a mindset opposite of most. “Adversity is something that gives you the opportunity to overcome it,” Foster told The Post.
That sentiment wasn’t always so easy to carry. Foster, 27, is set to compete at the 2024 Paris Paralympics for Team USA in the T-38 men’s 1500-meter race, which he set the American record for this summer. He recently starred on Netflix’s “Surviving Paradise” reality television series, and experienced newfound celebrity.
But at one point, it appeared unlikely he’d ever even be able to walk again. In June 2021, just before he was set to report to Oklahoma State, where he had committed as a graduate transfer on the cross country team, Foster – driving his 2012 white Jeep in Louisiana – was struck by an out-of-control 18-wheeler. The crash left Foster in a coma for 48 hours, temporarily paralyzed from the waist down for two weeks.
He had a fractured spine, and needed 50 staples on both sides of his body after 360-degree spinal fusion surgery. Surgeons inserted screws and rods to mend the broken pieces of his spine back together. Foster also needed knee surgery.
At first, doctors told him it would be a “miracle” if he walked again, let alone run competitively. He needed his family – particularly his grandma and aunt – to do almost everything for him, including bathe him. “I would d.