She now has 18 Paralympic medals to her name across four Summer and Winter Games disciplines – more than most athletes could even dream of.
Yet Team USA athlete Oksana Masters says she still has “so many things” motivating her ahead of the Paralympic Games – including defending the two para-cycling gold medals that she earned in Tokyo. On Wednesday, she took her first step towards that goal, becoming a three-time para cycling gold medalist by defending her title in the women’s H4-5 time trial, with a finish time of 23:45.20 that secured her the Paralympic title.
This year, Masters has the opportunity to bring her medal total up to 20: she will take part in the women’s road race H5 on Thursday, and the mixed team relay H1-5 on Saturday.
Sport, she tells CNN Sport’s Coy Wire, sent her on a “journey of self-discovery and love.”
Born in Ukraine with significant birth defects believed to be linked to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster – six toes, webbed fingers, no thumbs and legs that were missing weight-bearing bones – Masters spent the first seven years of her life between orphanages before her American mother, Gay Masters, adopted her.
“I came to America with so many scars, and the story was written for me. And I let them define me. I let those memories be what those memories were. But that’s not what defines you,” she tells CNN Sport.
She adds: “It’s not what you’ve been through. It’s what you choose to do and how you move forward and all the things you have done. And the scars are just there to remember how strong [you] are. Whether it’s a scar you got from climbing a tree, or whether it’s a scar that you didn’t ask for, it is – it’s a symbol of power and strength.”
This year, Masters will participate in para cycling races. The 35-year-old athlete said she is always chasing that perfect race, “where it doesn’t matter where I finish on the podium, before I know the result.
“I think a lot of athletes are chasing that perfect race. And, you know, it’s not about the gold medal [that is] what makes a perfect race,” she adds.
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