Oksana Masters

Oksana Masters was born in Ukraine with complications that later were linked to nuclear radiation exposure. After being relinquished by her parents, Masters would go on to live in three different Ukrainian orphanages. At age 7, Masters was adopted by Gay Masters, an American woman who was a single parent and lived in Buffalo, New York.

Ultimately, her birth complications would lead to above-the-knee amputation of both of her legs. The left leg was removed at age 9, then her right leg at age 14. It was between the two amputations that Masters, and her mother, would move to Louisville, Kentucky, where she was introduced to rowing. The sport offered her a new sense of freedom, and she fell in love with it.

In 2011, Masters met her rowing partner, Rob Jones, who had lost both legs while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps in Afghanistan. They competed in the Paralympic Games London 2012, winning a Bronze. After a back injury forced her to retire from rowing in 2013, she was introduced to cross-country skiing. Masters spent six months learning the sport and eventually qualified and competed at the Paralympic Winter Games Sochi 2014, winning a Silver in the 12-kilometer and a Bronze in the 5-kilometer.

Masters had the opportunity to try hand cycling in 2014. After just a few months of training, she qualified, competed, and earned a Bronze at the 2015 UCI Para-Cycling World Championships in the Road Race event. Masters then qualified and competed for the U.S. Para-Cycling Team at the Paralympic Games Rio 2016, placing 4th in the road race and 5th in the timed trial.

Despite an elbow dislocation only a few weeks before the Paralympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, Masters claimed her first Paralympic Gold by winning the cross-country skiing women’s 1.5 km sprint classical event and followed up with another Gold in the 5km sitting event. Masters also won a Bronze medal in the women’s 12km sitting event, and in the Paralympic biathlon event, she also won two Silver medals in the 6km & 12km sitting events, respectively.

During the 2019 calendar year, while balancing cross-country, biathlon, and cycling, Masters pulled off a rare feat, winning five golds and a silver at the ParaNordic World Championship, the Overall Nordic Cross Country World Cup title, and two silver medals at the UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championship.

After Tokyo 2020 was delayed due to the pandemic, Masters overcame a surgical procedure 100 days before the Games and was able to capture her first Paralympic summer medal in the hand cycling 24.5km time trial, winning Gold. Twenty-four hours later, in the grueling 66km road race, she repeated the feat with her second Paralympic Gold medal.

With a six-month turnaround between Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 with a World Championship in ParaNordic in between, Masters was able to overcome omicron at the cusp of the World Championship, missing training for over a week, and was able to capture 2 Gold, 1 Silver, and 2 Bronze in Cross Country and Biathlon leading Team USA in the medal count. Six weeks later, as the war began in her native Ukraine and with her heart and mind torn to compete or not, Masters dedicated her performance to her native land, winning 3 Gold & 4 Silver for Team USA. Her performance in Beijing made her the All-Time Leader for U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes at the Winter Games with 14. Her overall total is 17 medals in four different Paralympic Games sports over six consecutive summer and winter Games (rowing, cycling, cross-country skiing & biathlon).

In February 2023, Masters released her first book “A Memoir of Courage & Triumph, The Hard Parts” by Scribner.