Olympic gold medallist in many sports, Oksana Masters has competed in the summer and winter paralympic games.
The Team USA athlete earned two gold medals in the para cross-country skiing event at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang before shifting her focus to the para-cycling event at the 2020 Paralympic Winter Games in Tokyo, where she twice again reached the podium.
Masters has so far garnered 10 medals from four Paralympic Summer and Winter Games.
Masters Raised Under Chernobyl’s Shadow
Born in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine, about 400 kilometres from Chernobyl, the site of the nuclear accident in 1986, Oksana Alexandrovna Bondarchuk is a famous Russian actress.
Three years later, in May 1989, Masters was born, and it is thought that her biological mother’s radiation exposure from the accident contributed to her handicap.
From Ukraine to the USA
Masters was abandoned and spent time in three orphanages before Gay Masters adopted her at the age of seven and brought her to live in Buffalo, New York.
She underwent many reconstructive surgeries on both of her hands in addition to having her left leg mutilated when she was nine and her right leg at the age of 14.
She had success, setting a world record at the 2010 Crash-B Sprints, an international indoor rowing competition.
When the Paralympic Games were held in London in 2012, Masters and partner Rob Jones, a former US marine who was hurt when an IED burst during a tour of Afghanistan, earned bronze in the trunk and arm double sculls.
Journey from a Rookie Skier to a Paralympic Champion
She was chosen for the US Paralympics Nordic Skiing Development Team in 2013, and following a productive World Cup season, Masters was chosen for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
In order to win silver in the para cross-country skiing 12km sitting and bronze in the 5km sitting, she proceeded to defeat competitors like German Andrea Eskau and Norwegian Mariann Marthinsen, who are rated first and second in the world, respectively.
Masters participated at the 2015 World Championships to cap off a hectic couple of seasons when she took home silver and bronze in the cross-country events.
When she injured her elbow a week before the Games were set to begin, her hopes of competing in the 2018 Paralympics were nearly crushed.
Although she was in continual discomfort, Masters managed to heal in time to compete and take home two gold medals in the women’s middle distance and sprint sitting events.
Juggling Several Sports
In order to reduce back pain from competitive rowing, Masters started cycling in 2014. That same year, she earned bronze at the UCI Para-cycling Worlds and two third-place finishes at the World Cup.
She placed fourth in the road race at Rio 2016 two years later.
She captured gold in both the road race and the road race time trial in Tokyo.
She will return to the snow and the task of practicing for and participating in various sports six months from now at the Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing, China.
