March 16, 2018

Oksana Masters: Ukrainian American Paralympian

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PyeongChang is 28-year-old Oksana Masters’ fourth Paralympics. She first got involved in competitive sports at age 11 and is today considered one of Team U.S.A.’s more promising Paralympic athletes. Born in Ukraine, she was raised in Buffalo, N.Y., and Louisville, Ky., after being adopted at age 8.

Her Paralympics multiple sports resume includes a bronze medal for rowing in London in 2012, silver and bronze medals for cross-country skiing in Sochi in 2014 and a fourth place finish in cycling at the 2016 Games in Rio. Masters has also medaled in Nordic skiing at several international competitions.

Here are 13 facts about Masters:

1) Oksana is a survivor of the Chornobyl nuclear reactor accident – doctors believe her birth parents abandoned her after she suffered from in-utero radiation poisoning, which caused her to have missing tooth enamel, webbed fingers, six toes on each foot, one kidney, deformed legs, a partial stomach and no thumbs.

2) She lived in three different orphanages until she was almost eight years old, and has described the conditions there as very distressing. Masters returned to Ukraine in 2015 as guest of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and the America House in Kyiv to visit orphanages and wounded soldiers to show them life can improve under all circumstances.

3) Her adoptive mother, speech pathologist Gay Masters, had to wait two and a half years before she could bring her adopted daughter home from Ukraine to America due to an adoption embargo by the Ukrainian government.

4) When she arrived in the U.S. at age 8, she weighed 35 pounds – the weight of a healthy 3-year-old.

5) Her first fond memory of life in America was a trip to Walmart with her mother – from a cold, dark orphanage to a mystical land known as Walmart with candy, cat stickers and very low prices.

6) Oksana learned English by watching the cartoon “Scooby-Doo.”

7) Her legs were amputated during childhood at ages nine and 14. She was born with tibial hemimelia – as she grew, her legs could not support her weight. She thought her amputations would be below the knee so she could keep her same leg movements with prosthesis, but doctors had to amputate above due to muscle damage and a knee malformation caused by radiation poisoning.

8) She refers to her prosthetic legs as her “Lamborghinis.” They each cost about $100,000 and were covered by her adoptive mother’s insurance.

9) Her first competitive sport was rowing, which she picked up at age 11, after it was suggested by a school faculty member. She pursued rowing until 2013 when a back injury forced her out of the sport. Masters loved the peace and freedom of being on the water.

10) It took her less than a year to pick up cross-country skiing and make it to the 2014 Olympic Games. Having to give up rowing, she picked skiing as a replacement sport. She won a silver medal in Sochi for Nordic skiing.

11) Masters is quite proud to represent her birth country of Ukraine while competing for Team U.S.A. In a conversation with Excelle Sports, she said: “I am so proud to be Ukrainian and I’m also so proud to be an American. I love that I can represent Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and the U.S. as well – it’s an honor…And it’s really cool because the support I get from Ukraine is great.”

12) Her boyfriend is also a Paralympian. She met Nordic skier Aaron Pike at the 2014 Sochi opening ceremony. Pike competed in the 2012, 2014 and 2016 Paralympics and is competing alongside Masters in PyeongChang.

13) She posed for ESPN magazine’s 2012 Body Issue, of which she said: “This was an amazing opportunity for me and also for the adoptive community. When I first had my legs amputated, it was hard for me to be positive and feel pretty. Many people don’t know that someone with a disability can be strong, beautiful and successful as an athlete.”

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