Roundup: Top Paralympian Oksana Masters Makes A ‘Top Chef’ Cameo

Oksana Masters Shows Cooking Skills on ‘Top Chef’

Oksana Masters is more accustomed to winning gold medals than cooking a five-course meal, but that doesn’t mean she can’t help accomplished chefs in the kitchen.

Masters, a 19-time Paralympic medalist in Nordic skiing, cycling and rowing, shared on Instagram that she recently competed as a guest on Bravo’s hit cooking competition show “Top Chef” alongside several other American athletes.

See Red Gerrard's Top Chef cameo here.

Masters posted several photos of herself competing on the show in Milan, which will be one of the host cities for next year’s Milano Cortina Winter Olympics and Paralympics. She’s on track to qualify as a Nordic skier for Milano Cortina, which would be her eighth consecutive Paralympics since 2012.

Masters was joined on the show by five-time Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor (bobsledding), Olympic gold medalist Red Gerard (snowboarding) and three-time Paralympic gold medalist Declan Farmer (sled hockey).

Masters, the most decorated U.S. Winter Paralympian of all time, had more to do on “Top Chef” than just assist one of the competing chefs. She also posted a video on Instagram letting fans know that she was serving as a guest judge on the show.

Sit Skiers ‘Chase Dirt Roads’ Without Snow

Now that it’s summer, several sit skiers have transitioned to handcycles and mountainboards to stay in shape during the offseason.

Paralympic hopeful Ty Wiberg shared on Instagram that he recently went on a long cycling trip through Michigan with a friend. He wrote that they set out to travel 200 miles, but they cut their trip short after covering almost 20 miles on sand instead of gravel roads on the first day of the trip.

“With that fiasco sorted (out) I was feeling exhausted, so we decided to reevaluate our distance in the morning and 48 miles later my mom picked us up in Hayward (Michigan),” Wiberg wrote. “Learned lots of lessons and I’m excited to try again!”

Masters posted a short video on Instagram of herself training on her mountainboard. She added the comment, “Chasing dirt roads until the snow comes.”

Meanwhile, fellow sit skier Otis Loga recently hiked Devil’s Thumb, a granite spire formation in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests in Colorado. He has trained with U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing over the past few years.

“Big hike up to devils thumb today,” Loga wrote on Instagram. “Hiking all the way up to 12,000 feet.”

Dani Aravich Reveals Her Superstition on Friday the 13th

June 13 happened to land on Friday the 13th. To recognize the occasion, the official Instagram account for the Paralympics asked standing skier Dani Aravich if she has any superstitions.  

Aravich shared that she has a good luck charm that she wears around her neck during every race. The charm is in the shape of the agitos, which consists of three curved lines rotating around a central point and serves as the symbol of the Paralympics.

Aravich said she got the agitos charm after she made her Winter Paralympic debut at the 2022 Beijing Games. She competed two years earlier as a sprinter at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.

“Since I’ve gotten it after the Beijing Paralympic Games, I have never taken it off,” Aravich said. “And so it just reminds me when we are racing what we’re out here doing and what we’re doing on a larger scale for disability in society and how lucky I am to get to be a Paralympian and to get to represent this movement.”

Alex Abrams has written about Olympic and Paralympic sports for more than 15 years, including as a reporter for major newspapers in Florida, Arkansas and Oklahoma. He is a freelance contributor to USParaNordic.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.