Oksana Masters Finds Her Paralympic Speed On Wheels And Skis

Oksana Masters did the jersey proud.

When Masters, a seven-time Paralympian, won her first Paralympic cycling gold medal at the Tokyo Games three years ago, she did it wearing the custom-fit Team USA jersey that was made for teammate Samantha Bosco.

“It was really cool,” said Masters, who won gold medals in her time trial and road race handcycling events. “Bittersweet because (Bosco) wasn’t there, but then it motivated me to try and wear that jersey even more proudly and do more justice for it.”

Bosco had won a pair of bronze medals in her Paralympic debut in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, but a training crash resulted in a traumatic head injury just months before the Paralympic Games took place in Tokyo.

Looking for a jersey that would fit her better, Masters wound up with the jersey prepared for Bosco.

“I was really looking forward to Tokyo, so it was really hard for me to not be there physically,” Bosco said. “Oksana not only gave me that ability to be there in a small way by wearing my name literally on her back, but she gave me a bit of happiness in the hardest moments because she let me be a part of her own journey to gold.”

This year, competing in the Paralympic Games in Paris, both riders won gold medals. Masters repeated her Tokyo performances, winning gold medals in the women’s time trial H4-5 and road race H5. Bosco won her first career Paralympic gold medal in women’s time trial C4.

“I’m speechless,” Masters said after her win in the time trial. “I had no confidence in myself. I knew this course had one aspect that was my strength, which was that last climb, and everything else were my weaknesses. I just trusted my coach and trusted my plan, and it feels so good, and I would not have done this without the support of Team USA behind me the whole way through.”

Masters and Bosco were among a U.S. cycling team of 18 that came away from Paris with eight medals.

The cycling journey for Masters has been remarkable, and even unexpected.

Back in 2012, cycling was not even a thought when she made her Paralympic debut as a rower in London. At age 23, she won a bronze medal in the trunk and arms mixed double sculls.

Then rowing, which was her dream sport, disappeared because of a back injury at the 2013 world championships.

“I didn’t have any backup plans,” Masters said. “I didn’t know I was going to be an athlete in any other sport. I just knew rowing was the only thing I wanted to do.”

Soon, she was skiing.

“I had never even heard of cross-country skiing,” she said. “A week later, I’m going to go and try it for the first time.”

Masters won a pair of medals in her Paralympic Winter Games debut as a Nordic sit skier in 2014 in Sochi, Russia, and in two Paralympics since she’s upped that total to 14, making her the most decorated U.S. Winter Paralympian.

Along the way, she discovered cycling through a skiing teammate, Monica Bascio, herself a Paralympian in both sports.

“I had no idea handcycling existed,” Masters said.

Her first two years went poorly.

“I did not finish a race without having a mechanical and getting dead last,” Masters said.

She refused to give up. This is an athlete who was born in Ukraine with multiple congenital disabilities due to the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident and its lingering radiation effects. She was adopted by a University of Buffalo speech therapy professor from an orphanage at the age of 7. By 14, both of her legs were amputated.

After all of that, mechanical problems and last-place finishes were just fuel for motivation.

“I think it’s a unique thing,” said Masters, now 35 and a published author. “Some people can look at it as, ‘Oh my gosh, it makes me so mad.’ That you don’t want to do it again. Go back to that thing you know. Or motivate you. And that’s what it did for me.”

Fourth- and fifth-place finishes in her Paralympic cycling debut in Rio in 2016 fed that inner fire.

A lot of teammates and other athletes thought she would quit cycling after that, Masters said.

“But I’m that person,” she added. “I wanted to finish what I started. And I want to learn this.”

At the Tokyo Games, Masters found a friend in cycling teammate Clara Brown, who was making her Paralympic debut.

“In Tokyo, we both really were struggling mentally,” said Brown, who won a bronze medal in Paris this summer. “I had sustained an injury at the Games and she, of course, had a pretty substantial surgery and recovery just prior. So we were both just really bummed, I would say, and leaned on each other.”

Brown had fifth- and sixth-place finishes in road competition in Tokyo, and missed her first Paralympic medal on the track by just one spot in individual pursuit. Masters, on the other hand, came back just three months after surgery to remove a tumor from her femur to win her first two Paralympic cycling gold medals in the time trial and road race.

“She works incredibly hard,” Brown said. “I think it’s amazing that she’s a two-sport athlete and is able to balance it all and can just jump from the winter season right into the summer season. Incredible impressive.”

Even in the middle of winter, skiing season, Masters will hear from Brown, who grew up and still lives near the skiing hills of Maine.

“(Brown) is that one athlete that is keeping up and is like, ‘Oh, my gosh, you rock star! You did it again,’” Masters said.

The two now room together on the road, including last fall in Glasgow, Scotland, when Brown, then battling an illness, finished eighth in the road race and Masters won a gold medal in the road race but missed a podium finish in the time trial due to a flat tire.

“We have a lot in common,” Brown said. “I think we’re both just very driven and have the intrinsic motivation. I just really value the authenticity from her. She speaks her mind.”

This year, Masters quickly transitioned to cycling after winning four medals at the 2024 IBU Para Biathlon World Championships. She won three gold medals in four world cup races in May.

In cycling, she chases the same rainbows as every other rider.

“What motivated me was the rainbows, the world championship jerseys,” Masters said, “because that’s something that is the same and equal for Olympic athletes, Paralympic athletes, Para-cyclists. Everyone knows what that rainbow jersey is in the cycling community, and I really wanted one of those.”

Paul D. Bowker has been writing about Olympic and Paralympic sports since 1996, when he was an assistant bureau chief in Atlanta. He is a freelance contributor to USParaCycling.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.