Thai cave survivor reunites with rescuer at high school graduation 5 years later

Five years ago, Adul Samon was rescued from a cave along with his 11 Thai soccer teammates and their coach. Now, he's graduating from an American high school -- and has reunited with one of his rescuers.

On June 23, 2018, the Wild Boars soccer team set out for an excursion to the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in northern Thailand after a practice session. Only expecting to be gone for an hour, they didn't pack food or water.

Their adventure was during monsoon season, and heavy rainfall began shortly after they entered the cave. As they went to exit the cave, the path they took was blocked by floodwaters. There were no other options to make an escape.

Hours became days, and the team was surviving on trickles of freshwater and the hope of making it out of the cave alive.

Adul, then 14, had taken charge in the depths of the flooding cave and happened to be one of the few boys on the team who spoke English.

The group believed they might make it out of the cave by digging a tunnel. With the little energy they had, the boys and coach took shifts digging with their bare hands.

Meanwhile, thousands of people from around the world gathered to help find the soccer team, including Rick Stanton, a volunteer from an elite British diving team.

Nine days after the boys became trapped, Stanton found the soccer team.

"I didn’t know what I should say or what I was supposed to say. I just happy that finally people found us," Adul, who is now 19, told "World News Tonight."

Stanton and the team supplied medicine and foil blankets to the boys, and eventually brought them to the surface over a three-day period.

Adul always aspired to continue playing soccer, and he still does -- in the United States.

"World News Tonight" anchor David Muir shares an update on Adul five years after being rescued, and his inspiring story of perseverance and living the American dream.

With a full scholarship, Adul began studying at The Masters School outside of New York City in 2020, becoming captain of the school's soccer team.

"What I heard about his work ethic -- and who he was in the cave, and who he was before the cave and after, I knew that he was gonna be just fine here," Laura Danforth, the head of the school, told "World News Tonight."

Adul said the school has helped him learn how to overcome the obstacles he expects to encounter in the future.

On graduation day, Adul's rescuer, Stanton, was in attendance, giving the commencement address, and on stage with Adul when he received his diploma.

"I'm very proud of the fact that I was partly responsible for his, you know, his life, in a way. And to see him make the most of the opportunities he's had," Stanton said.

Now a high school graduate headed to Middlebury College in the fall, Adul expressed his appreciation for his new life.

"We have to keep adjusting to the environment where you are in order to survive. You have to keep adapting your life," he said.

"This is just incredible, it is this miracle," Adul added. "I never thought I would come this far, and I would be sitting here in the United States."