Oksana Masters

Started: She quit rowing in 2013 after a back injury and began competing in cycling the following year. (usatoday.com, 17 May 2016; fasterskier.com, 15 Apr 2016) Reason: She took up handcycling as part of her recovery from the back injury she sustained while competing in rowing. (si.com, 23 May 2021; courier-journal.com, 07 May 2020) Ambition: To compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (wgrz.com, 24 Nov 2023) Milestones: At the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing she took her career total of Winter Games medals to 14, which is more than any other US athlete. Her seven podium finishes in Beijing is also the most medals won at a single edition of the Paralympic Winter Games by an athlete representing the United States of America. (SportsDeskOnline, 22 Sep 2022; olympics.com, 13 Mar 2022) Awards: She received the 2020 Laureus Award for Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability. (paralympic.org, 18 Feb 2020) In 2019 she was named Team USA's Female Paralympic Athlete of the Year. (courier-journal.com, 22 Nov 2019) In 2018 she was named Individual Sportswoman of the Year by the Women's Sports Foundation in New York City, NY, United States of America. (paralympic.org, 23 Oct 2018) She was named Team USA's Female Paralympic Athlete of the Games after winning five medals at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang. (teamusa.org, 26 Apr 2018) She was named the 2018 Women's Sports Foundation Athlete of the Year. (Facebook page, 26 Dec 2020) She was flag bearer for the United States of America at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang. (teamusa.org, 16 Mar 2018) She was named the 2017 Para Nordic Skier of the Year by online publication FasterSkier. (fasterskier.com, 10 Apr 2017) She was named the 2012 United States [US] Rowing Female Athlete of the Year. (teamusa.org, 14 Nov 2013) Additional Info: UKRAINE TO UNITED STATES OF AMERICA She was born in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine, which is located just a few hours from Chernobyl, the scene of a nuclear accident in 1986. She was abandoned at an orphanage after she was born, and was adopted by Gay Masters at age seven and taken to the United States of America. "Where I was from, they had radiation leaks. A cop [police officer] in my village would go around and say, 'Lock up', and you boarded your windows and doors and didn't come out for a day or two to let the radiation die down. I was in a very poor orphanage so there wasn't much food. There was never enough to satisfy the hunger. I don't remember much because many memories are blocked out. I always knew that I would have a mother, I just had to wait." (uatoday.tv, 30 Oct 2015; uoflphysicians.com, 06 Mar 2014; espn.go.com, 11 Jul 2012) SCARS AND TATTOOS She spent over seven years in the orphanage system in Ukraine as a child, where she said she was subjected to physical abuse that left her with numerous scars. "A scar is a story that happens to you. You don't own a scar, you survive a scar. I want to own my story. That's something I've begun to discover as I've grown older, this desire I have to reclaim my body, to reclaim my life as a story that only I get to tell. To say the hard part out loud, [that] I was abused. To define it, not let it define me. Over the course of my adulthood, that desire has manifested itself in all types of ways. It has manifested itself in a love of tattoos. Tattoos, unlike scars, you get to choose. And each tattoo I have is full of so many of my own choices. Each of them represents such an important part of me. When I get a new tattoo, it's like me saying, 'I want my story told in this colour, and this size, in this location, that looks like this, and reminds me of this, and this, and this'. So, where my actual scars might reflect these moments of powerlessness, my new scars, the way I choose to mark my body up with tattoos, I feel this deep purpose in it. I feel the most amazing sense of self." (theplayerstribune.com, 29 Dec 2020) TWO GAMES IN SIX MONTHS Six months after winning two gold medals in cycling at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, she claimed three gold medals and four silver medals in Nordic skiing at the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing. "I think what mentally drives me [to do more than one sport] is I wasn't satisfied with how I left the sport of rowing. It wasn't my choice to walk away from it. My body failed me at that sport. I wasn't able to maintain a quality of life to pursue that sport more. You would think cross-country skiing and cycling cross over to each other really well, but it's actually the opposite. They are two separate motions. Cycling is all pushing and cross-country skiing is all about pulling. I have to de-train as we come off peak ski fitness and get into cycling shape. It's wild to see how my body physically changes. My back muscles and my lats and my triceps are so defined for skiing. When I start cycling, my back muscles and my lats disappear, and my shoulders and my chest and my biceps start to grow. It's just constantly adapting." (SportsDeskOnline, 22 Sep 2022; people.com, 18 Oct 2021; si.com, 23 May 2021; teamusa.org, 21 May 2021) BOOK In December 2021 she announced the release of her memoir, 'The Hard Parts'. "I'm so excited and anxious and nervous for people to know some deeper, intimate parts about my story that I recently started sharing for the first time. It was really cool to sit back and look at the journey of where I came from to where I am." (paralympic.org, 13 Dec 2021; Twitter profile, 10 Dec 2021)

Sporting Relatives: Her partner Aaron Pike represented the United States of America in athletics at the 2012, 2016, and 2020 Paralympic Games. He also competed in biathlon and cross-country skiing at the Paralympic Winter Games in 2014, 2018, and 2022. (SportsDeskOnline, 22 Sep 2022; Instagram profile, 15 Sep 2022)