Two days before the opening ceremony in Milan Cortina, Oksana Masters went on Instagram and told everyone the truth. She had just come back from hand surgery for a torn ligament. Then a concussion and a recurring leg infection had kept her in and out of hospitals and off her skis. She wrote: "I'm not the same skier as I was training to be."
On March 7, 2026, in her first race, she won the women's sitting biathlon sprint by 16 seconds. Her teammate Kendall Gretsch took silver behind her. It was the 20th Paralympic medal of her career. By the end of the Games she had four more.
"I did not expect a podium finish to be honest, let alone a gold."
Oksana Masters, to the Associated Press after winning the sitting biathlon sprint, March 7, 2026
If you only know her from the medal table, you are missing most of the story. To get to that start line, she came a very long way.
Three orphanages
She was born on June 19, 1989, in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine, about three years after the Chernobyl disaster. She was born with birth defects that have been linked to the radiation: webbed fingers, no thumbs, extra toes and missing weight-bearing bones in her legs. Because of her medical needs, she was placed in an orphanage.
She lived in three of them before she was eight. In those years, she has said, she suffered physical and emotional abuse.
In the United States, a single woman named Gay Masters saw a black-and-white photo of a five-year-old Oksana in a Ukrainian adoption notebook. The adoption took more than two years, because Ukraine had stopped foreign adoptions. The teddy bears Gay sent in care packages never reached the girl. When the paperwork finally cleared, Gay flew to Ukraine and brought her home to Buffalo, New York. Oksana was nearly eight. She weighed about 35 pounds.
"She's overcome so much."
Gay Masters, Oksana's mother, to the Associated Press, August 2021
Freedom on the water
Her left leg was amputated when she was 9. Her right leg was amputated when she was 14. She also went through several reconstructive surgeries on both hands.
When she was 13, she and her mother moved from Buffalo to Louisville, Kentucky, and she found adaptive rowing. On her website she wrote that it gave her a new sense of freedom and control that had been taken from her many times in her past.
"I found out quickly the more I pushed myself, the stronger, faster and more in control I became."
Oksana Masters, on her official website, as quoted by NPR, March 2026
In 2012, rowing with Rob Jones, she won bronze in the trunk and arms mixed double sculls at the London Paralympics. She was 23. A back injury ended her rowing career soon after, and she moved to cross-country skiing, biathlon and hand cycling.
The long way to gold
None of it came fast. She failed to qualify for the 2008 Paralympics. At the 2014 Sochi Games, in a sit-ski, in a sport she had only recently taken up, she won silver and bronze in cross-country. At the 2016 Rio Games, racing a hand cycle, she finished fourth in the road race and fifth in the time trial. Off the podium twice.
Gold finally came at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, at her fourth Paralympics. First in the women's sitting cross-country sprint, then in the 5km.
"I'm not the athlete that walked in and knew success right away."
Oksana Masters, to NPR, March 2026
Summer and winter
After that she won in both seasons. At the Tokyo Paralympics she won the time trial and the road race on a hand cycle. At the 2022 Beijing Winter Games she won two sitting biathlon golds and the mixed relay. She also took silver in the cross-country sprint, a race she later called the one that got away. At the 2024 Paris Paralympics she won the time trial again and took the road race by pulling away in the final kilometers.
She arrived in Italy in 2026 with 19 Paralympic medals from summer and winter Games. She was engaged to the Paralympian Aaron Pike, who also races in both seasons. The two had grown close at the Sochi Games in 2014, bonding over coffee.
Five medals in Italy
Before that first biathlon sprint, she told NPR, her mantra on the start line was three words: I am strong. After the win she credited her coaches and her wax technicians for getting her there.
She finished fourth and sixth in her next two biathlon races. Then she went back to cross-country, to the sprint, the race that got away in Beijing. She was second as she came to the final climb. She closed a gap of about 131 feet, caught the leader and won. She called it relief and redemption from Beijing.
On March 11 she won the 10km interval start, her third gold of the Games, and Gretsch took bronze.
On March 14 came the 4 x 2.5km mixed relay, with Josh Sweeney, Sydney Peterson and Jake Adicoff, who raced with his guide, Reid Goble. Sweeney handed off in second. Masters skied the second leg and kept the team in the medals. On the anchor leg, Adicoff passed Ukraine's Liudmyla Liashenko with a few hundred meters left, and the United States won the title again. She added a bronze in the 20km.
She left with four golds and a bronze. It was her eighth Paralympic Games. Her career total stood at 24 medals.
A home course
The day before her final race, she told NPR that each of the medals had a different story, from getting to the start line to earning them. She said she would still go into the next season doubting herself.
She and Pike planned to marry in Italy, a setting she saw as the right next chapter for their story.
"Our story began in snow, it started in the mountains."
Oksana Masters, to NPR, on marrying Aaron Pike in Italy, March 2026
In 2020 she co-founded the Sisters in Sports Foundation, which supports female athletes with disabilities. And she was aiming for the 2028 Paralympics in Los Angeles, back on a hand cycle, in a sport where she has already won four Paralympic golds. The girl who came home to Buffalo at 35 pounds would be racing in her own country.
GAMECHANGER™"It's a home Games for me, and it would be the most full-circle moment to line up on the start line."
Oksana Masters, to NPR, on the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics, March 2026
Reporting draws on the Associated Press, NPR, Team USA, U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing, U.S. Biathlon, Cycling Weekly, Oksana Masters' official website and the University of Illinois College of Applied Health Sciences.
Sources (18)
NPR: She's won 24 Paralympic medals, but Oksana Masters wants to talk about the times she lost · KPBS (NPR): Oksana Masters wants to talk about the times she lost · U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing: Golden start for Oksana Masters, Gretsch secures silver · AP via KY3: Masters in shock after winning 20th Paralympic medal · AP via AOL: American Oksana Masters in shock after winning · AP via ClickOnDetroit: Masters wins 3rd gold at Milan Cortina, medal total to 22 · KCBD: United States successfully defends gold in Paralympic mixed relay · University of Illinois AHS: Oksana Masters · AP via CBC: Oksana Masters and her mother, August 2021 · Oksana Masters: About me · Team USA: With two gold medals, Masters' legend grew in Tokyo · Team USA: Masters and Soule win Paralympic gold in cross-country sprint in PyeongChang · Team USA: Masters wins second Paralympic gold medal in middle distance cross-country · Team USA: Masters wins silver in middle distance, Beijing 2022 · Cycling Weekly: Masters wins ninth Paralympic gold, her 19th medal overall · Spin.ph: Masters eyes medal in a fourth different sport · U.S. Biathlon: Oksana Masters, The Hard Parts · AP via KY3: Masters in shock after winning 20th Paralympic medal