The inspiring story of Chernobyl victim and Paralympic champion Oksana Masters

Cross-country skiing, biathlon, cycling, rowing... All these disciplines have one thing in common: Oksana Masters has won at least one Paralympic medal in each of them.

A double Paralympic champion in cycling and biathlon at the 2020 Tokyo Games, the Ukrainian-born American is an unrivaled champion, a sportswoman with an unshakable spirit and a will of steel.

Born in Ukraine in 1989, Oksana Masters was one of the radiation victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. She was born without shins, with one leg shorter than the other and six fingers on each hand, five of which were glued together. All details she revealed in an essay she wrote about her life titled 'The Hard Part Out Loud'.

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Not only that, as she explained in the essay published by The Player's Tribue magazine, but she was also abandoned at birth by her parents, and grew up in an orphanage where she was abused and "sold to the highest bidder". She also revealed that she was the victim of several sexual assaults during this period.

However, one woman came to her aid, Gay Masters, a speech therapy professor who lives in New York State who adopted Oksana after coming across her photo at an adoption agency, The Louisville Courier Journal revealed.

"I had intended to adopt an infant because I know through my line of work how important the first year is for development," Gay told the newspaper, "but then I was given a black and white photograph of this little girl, there was a sparkle in her eyes and I knew, even though this child was not who I had set out to find, this was my daughter."

In the United States, the young woman devoted herself to sports. She took up rowing, initially as a hobby, but her coaches realized her abilities and paired her with Rob Jones in the mixed pairs event, The Guardian reported.

Together, they participated in the London 2012 Paralympic Games and won a bronze medal. Unfortunately, Masters injured her back and decided to abandon rowing in favor of endurance sports: cycling and cross-country skiing.

It was in cross-country skiing that she truly came into her own as an athlete. Since 2013, she has achieved convincing results and qualified for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. Here she won two medals (bronze and silver) in cross-country skiing and places of honor in biathlon.

In 2014, at the age of 24, she began cycling seriously in preparation for the 2015 World Championships. She placed third in the road race and fourth in the time trial, results which allowed her to qualify for the 2016 Rio Games.

The Brazilian experience proved frustrating for the athlete, who placed fourth and fifth in the events she participated in. However, she did not give up and continued training for the Tokyo Games.

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In 2018, at the Pyongyang Games, she won her first Paralympic titles in the 1.1km and 5km cross-country skiing events. She finished the tournament with five medals, including two silver, as covered on the Team USA website.

Just as she was preparing for the Tokyo Games, a tumor was discovered in her leg and she had to undergo surgery to remove it. Despite this setback, she won two gold medals in the cycling events and once again proved the champion that she is.

In 2022, she claimed a third Paralympic title in another discipline, winning the 6km and 12.5km sitting biathlon events. In cross-country skiing, she had to settle for three second places, bringing her total medal haul at the Paralympic Winter Games to 13.

In September 2023, she won the Sportswoman of the Year award at the Para Sport Awards. Today, Masters is the most decorated American at the Paralympic Games and has no plans to stop. What is her next goal? The Paris 2024 Games of course!

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