Paralympian Oksana Masters pursues cycling spot in Rio

With her dominant cross country skiing season behind her, Paralympic athlete Oksana Masters is on to her next goal — making the U.S. team for Rio in para-cycling.

The 26-year-old, who trains in Champaign, Ill., is one the United States’ most versatile Paralympians. Masters, who is a double amputee, has represented her country in rowing and cycling in the summer and cross country skiing and biathlon in the winter. She won Paralympic silver and bronze medals in cross country at the 2014 Sochi Games.

She’s coming off the 2015-16 ski season unbeaten, taking the overall world cup globe in Vuokatti, Finland, in March.

In recent weeks, Masters has focused her training on the bike. She’ll compete at a World Cup in Belgium, beginning Friday, as part of the lead-up to the U.S. Paralympic trials, where she hopes to make the team for Rio in the time trial and road race. The trials for swimming, cycling and track and field will be held in Charlotte from June 30-July 2.

After suffering a back injury, Masters gave up rowing, a sport in which she won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Paralympics.

“It was really disappointing when my body wouldn’t let me continue to train at the highest level and achieve more,” she said of rowing. “With cycling I can still be active and compete and ultimately that’s what I love to do, to be competitive.”

Her results in international competition show she’s very competitive despite taking up cycling in 2014.  Masters won bronze in the road race at the 2015 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships. She was fourth in the time trial.

“I’m such a horrible time trialist right now,” she said. “Time trialing is one of those things that you’ve got to train for … Being a new rider it’s still really hard for me to know what’s the most efficient gear for me to be in. The road race is probably more exciting in my opinion because it’s a lot faster pace and people are constantly attacking.”

Ian Lawless, High Performance Director of U.S. Paralympic Cycling, says Masters has an “excellent shot”  at making the team for Rio. “It’s a rare athlete that can come out in their first year and make a world championship team,” he said, adding that the U.S. has the No. 1 ranked para-cycling team in the world. “It’s the hardest team in the world to make. I think that underscores how special of an athlete she is.”

Lawless said Masters is working with Paralympic cycling head coach Michael Creed to improve her time-trialing skills.

“The road race is much more an event that you can kind of get through it on raw talent,” Lawless said.  “You base your effort on the speed of the competitors around you.”

Masters says she’s still building up the muscle mass she needs for cycling.

“I think that’s just where having a base fitness helped me a lot,” she said. “I started doing sports when I was 13 and competitively doing sports – where I was actually training -- when I was 17.”

Her story of endurance and strength began in a Ukrainian orphanage, where she lived until age 7 when she was adopted by Gay Masters, who brought Oksana home to Buffalo, N.Y., before moving to Louisville.

Both of Oksana’s legs were damaged from radiation poisoning that was believed to be from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor incident. Oksana says she could have been exposed to radiation from other plants in the area where she lived. She underwent surgeries to amputate both legs.

Last October she returned to Ukraine for the first time.  “I never thought I’d be able to go back to Ukraine,” she said. “It was amazing and it was crazy because the last time I was in Ukraine I was a child; I didn’t speak English. I didn’t really know what was going on besides the fact that I was so happy that I was getting a family. And then to go back to Ukraine for the first time ever and to be able to visit other orphanages and share my experience with my disability that I have …  I can’t put it into words because I have wanted it for so long and to be able to voice your opinion, to help in some way is pretty cool.”

She’d like to do more public speaking about her experiences, but she hasn’t had much free time as she balances training in her sports.

For now, she’s focusing on racing in Rio in a sport she’s still learning.

“I still have a long ways to go to consider myself a good cyclist,” she said.

A medal or two in Rio might go a long way in proving she’s one of the best in the world.