THE INCREDIBLE PARALYMPIC CHAMPION OKSANA MASTERS

Oksana Masters is a name that resonates with triumph over adversity. As the most decorated para-athlete in history, her journey to the pinnacle of sports is nothing short of miraculous.

Born in 1989 in Ukraine, Oksana came into the world with severe phys­i­cal defor­mi­ties, a con­se­quence of the Cher­nobyl nuclear dis­as­ter. Her legs had no bones, her hands were webbed with miss­ing thumbs, and her left leg was short­er than her right. On top of that, she was born with­out a kid­ney, parts of her stom­ach, and with var­i­ous oth­er med­ical issues. These chal­lenges led her birth par­ents to aban­don her, leav­ing her to grow up in Ukrain­ian orphan­ages.

For the first sev­en years of her life, Oksana lived in three dif­fer­ent orphan­ages, each with its own hor­rors. One of them, which she lat­er described as a “broth­el for minors,” sub­ject­ed her to unspeak­able abuse. From the age of five to sev­en, she and oth­er chil­dren were reg­u­lar­ly tak­en to a “room upstairs” where they were sex­u­al­ly abused. Amidst this night­mare, Oksana found solace in a pho­to­graph of a woman with glass­es, smil­ing warm­ly. This woman was Gay Mas­ters, a pro­fes­sor from the Unit­ed States who had seen Oksana’s pic­ture among hun­dreds of oth­er orphans and felt an imme­di­ate con­nec­tion.

Gay Mas­ters was deter­mined to adopt Oksana, despite the obsta­cles she faced as an unmar­ried woman in the 1990s. It took her two long years of psy­cho­log­i­cal eval­u­a­tions and end­less paper­work, but in 1997, she final­ly brought Oksana home to the U.S. The tran­si­tion was over­whelm­ing for Oksana, who had nev­er known a life with­out fear, hunger, or pain. She was eight years old, weighed just 35 pounds, and had the height of a three-year-old. But for the first time, she had her own room, toys, and more than enough food. Yet, the scars of her past lin­gered. Oksana hoard­ed sug­ar cubes, cried at night, and nev­er spoke of the abuse she had endured, fear­ing she would be sent back to the orphan­age.

It was Gay who intro­duced Oksana to sports, start­ing with ice skat­ing and swim­ming. But it was row­ing that became Oksana’s refuge. At 13, she began row­ing, and for the first time, she felt in con­trol of her life. She soon real­ized that the more she pushed her­self phys­i­cal­ly, the stronger and more capa­ble she became. Row­ing gave her a healthy out­let for the pain she had bot­tled up inside.

How­ev­er, Oksana’s path was far from smooth. At nine, she had to have her left leg ampu­tat­ed due to her con­gen­i­tal defor­mi­ties. Five years lat­er, her right leg was also ampu­tat­ed. These surg­eries were trau­mat­ic, but Oksana nev­er let them break her spir­it. She focused on what she could do rather than what she had lost.

In 2012, Oksana com­pet­ed in her first Par­a­lympics in Lon­don, win­ning a bronze medal in row­ing. But that was just the begin­ning. After a back injury forced her to leave row­ing, she took up cross-coun­try ski­ing and biathlon. She quick­ly became one of the best in the world, win­ning mul­ti­ple medals at the 2014 Sochi Par­a­lympics. Her return to the region close to her birth­place gave her an extra push, and she ded­i­cat­ed her vic­to­ries to her moth­er, Gay, who had fought so hard to give her a bet­ter life.

Oksana’s sto­ry took anoth­er turn when she met Aaron Pike, a fel­low Par­a­lympian, in 2014. The two con­nect­ed over their shared expe­ri­ences and love for sports, and they became a cou­ple. Aaron intro­duced Oksana to para-cycling, which soon became anoth­er are­na where she excelled. In the 2016 Rio Par­a­lympics, she nar­row­ly missed the podi­um in cycling, fin­ish­ing fourth. But Oksana was not deterred; she used this set­back as moti­va­tion to push hard­er.

Her per­se­ver­ance paid off at the 2018 PyeongChang Win­ter Par­a­lympics, where she won five medals, includ­ing two golds in cross-coun­try ski­ing. Despite break­ing her elbow just weeks before the Games, Oksana com­pet­ed and tri­umphed, prov­ing once again that noth­ing could stop her. She fol­lowed this with anoth­er stel­lar per­for­mance at the 2020 Tokyo Par­a­lympics, where she won two golds in cycling. And just six months lat­er, at the 2022 Bei­jing Win­ter Par­a­lympics, Oksana added four more medals to her col­lec­tion, cement­ing her lega­cy as one of the great­est para-ath­letes of all time. And, of course, she added anoth­er gold to her col­lec­tion in the wom­en’s road race H5 at the Paris 2024 Par­a­lympic Games.

Oksana’s suc­cess on the glob­al stage is not just a tes­ta­ment to her phys­i­cal abil­i­ties but to her indomitable spir­it. She has become a sym­bol of resilience, not only rep­re­sent­ing the Unit­ed States but also hon­or­ing her Ukrain­ian roots. When Rus­sia invad­ed Ukraine in Feb­ru­ary 20204, Oksana used her plat­form to speak out, ded­i­cat­ing her per­for­mances to both coun­tries. She has called for the exclu­sion of Russ­ian ath­letes from the Olympics and Par­a­lympics, stand­ing in sol­i­dar­i­ty with her fel­low Ukraini­ans who are fight­ing for their lives and their coun­try.

Oksana Mas­ters is not just an ath­lete; she is a true role mod­el and embod­ies hope, courage, and the human capac­i­ty to over­come even the dark­est of cir­cum­stances. Her sto­ry inspires mil­lions around the world, prov­ing that no mat­ter where you start, you can achieve great­ness with deter­mi­na­tion, resilience, and a heart full of fight.