Oksana's golds, from Chernobyl to the sport that saves
The athlete, adopted by an American family, is in her seventh Paralympics and wins in para-cycling: 'Differences make you unique'
2' min read
2' min read
In Paris she has already won a gold medal, in the women's individual time trial H4-5, but today there is the inline race, also with our Ana Maria Vitelaru and Katia Aere, and she always runs for the podium. Oksana Masters is one of the international stars of these Paralympics. The American has been competing and winning at the Paralympic Games since London 2012, including all the winter editions: she is in her seventh Olympics.
From Chernobyl to adoption
Born in 1989, three years after Chernobyl, she is abandoned by her family at birth because she suffers from certain malformations: she has no tibias, one leg is shorter than the other and six fingers on each hand. She suffers physically and psychologically, her home are many orphanages where she also suffers violence, until, at the age of 7, she is adopted by Gay Masters, an American speech therapist, who takes her to the USA, where there is room for one child, there is also room for the second.
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Oksana's medical needs are endless and coping with them as parents could not have been easy: at the age of 9 one leg was amputated and at 13 the other. It was at this age that the American's sporting career began. In the beginning it was rowing that won her, at the age of 23, her first medal, a bronze, with Rob Jones in London in 2012.
From rowing to skiing
.Then came excruciating back pain and she sought refuge in skiing, her new sporting love, and won silver and bronze at Sochi 2014. But Rio 2016 is near and so she takes up para-cycling again and finishes fourth in the road race and fifth in the road time trial. She wins again, in Pyeongchang 2018, two golds in cross-country skiing and two silvers and a bronze in the biathlon.
She also won outside the competition fields: at the age of 30, she was awarded the Laureus Award for best disabled athlete. But nothing is spared her and, a year later, she discovers a tumour in her leg. Operations, treatment, drama and rebirth nine months later with training for Tokyo 2020: the time trial and the H4-5 inline race in the para-cycling event are hers.
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