Following A Fluke Injury Last Summer, Oksana Masters Is Now Full-Steam Ahead Toward Milano Cortina

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by Chrös McDougall

Oksana Masters’ life turned upside down in the most unexpected of ways this past summer.


“I shouldn’t admit it,” she said. “I was closing a suitcase.”


A jet-setting multi-sport superstar, Masters has opened and closed that suitcase hundreds of times. But on this day — July 7 — a fluke wrong move resulted in her tearing a ligament in three places.


So for the umpteenth time, Team USA’s most decorated Winter Paralympian went under the knife. And just like that, her finely tuned plans for a strong 2025 into 2026 came undone.


Masters, a 19-time Paralympic medalist across three sports, was seeking to add to her three cycling world titles in the late summer before switching over to her sit ski to get an early start on training for her eighth consecutive Paralympics next March in Milano and Cortina, Italy.


Instead, she went into surgery on July 19 for another hand reconstruction.


“In this moment, it’s hard for me to see it now but I know I’m gaining something that I can’t see or understand just yet,” she wrote on Instagram the following day. “But, I refuse to give up and I refuse to back down. I’m not going to quit trying until I’m forced to!”

The fruits of that positivity are finally paying off.


Though Masters had to miss the Para-cycling world championships in August, she received clearance to resume training for Nordic in mid-October. Shortly thereafter Masters and fiancé Aaron Pike left their home in Illinois to get a head start on the team’s preseason training camp in Canmore, Alberta.


The rest of the U.S. team has since joined “Pikesana” in the Canadian Rockies. If all continues as planned, Masters will kick off the Nordic season on Dec. 4 at the Canmore World Cup and then be back on the Paralympic podium in March at Milano Cortina.


“It’s a little different for me, especially because of my injuries and setbacks, knowing that I’m going to be going in maybe a little different athlete,” she said, “but as an athlete, I’m training for some medals as well. I’d love to even out that nine gold medals to 10.”


In conversation, Masters, 36, maintains her upbeat, bubbly persona. She and Pike, who is also seeking an eighth consecutive trip to the Paralympics, recently dished about their skiing, their relationship and a possible Italian wedding during an appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”


Masters recognizes that, to many fans, seeing her every two years at the Paralympics has become almost a given.


Behind the scenes, though, the journey is often more challenging than it appears, including this time around.


Born in Ukraine with various defects believed to be connected to the Chernobyl disaster, Masters has now undergone 28 surgeries. Her legs were amputated above the knee at ages 9 and 14, respectively. Additional surgeries over the years have rebuilt her hands, taking her from webbed fingers and no thumbs at birth to now having surgically constructed thumbs and some practical function of her fingers, which is possible using ligaments instead of muscles.


Her reconstructed hands are so complex Masters jokes that she feels like “a show-and-tell project” whenever visiting a new doctor.


Those hands have helped Masters become one of the world’s preeminent Para athletes, starting with the bronze medal she won as a rower at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. Their complexity also creates additional challenges at times, though.


An injury to her left hand during the 2022-23 season also required multiple surgeries and extensive time off. The most recent injury was to her right hand, notably affecting her trigger finger for biathlon. Among Masters’ U.S.-record 14 Para Nordic skiing medals, five have come in the biathlon. So, to have a shot at winning more in Milano Cortina, having a functional trigger finger is essential.


Unlike with most physical injuries, Masters said this one didn’t come with a formal prognosis and timeline. Being back to “100 percent” isn’t really how this works.


“It’s more me relearning how to use my hand and how I used to open things, and things like that,” Masters said, adding, “It’s just the nature of my complexity.”


Dealing with another injury has been frustrating at times, she admitted. There’s always that pressure to get back out there as fast as possible. At the same time, Masters has been here before. That’s taught her to listen to her body, and to focus on the things she can control.


“Like for my sport, I can still do trigger work for biathlon, and still do visualizations and focus on that,” she said. “And just really knowing that I’ve been here before, and … that our bodies are so resilient. We’re meant to overcome so much more than we really give (them) credit for.”


The good news is that, after some initial complications, she’s now rounding back into shape in time for another Paralympic bid.


As she looks to Milano Cortina — and then Los Angeles 2028 after that — Masters remains clear about her goals.


“I want to win,” she said, “and I will be mad (if I don’t).”


But, she added, “I’m not going to put my whole self-worth on the medal and the results.”


That kind of thinking hasn’t always come naturally to Masters — and it still doesn’t. But through years of experience, plus lots of support from Pike, she’s doing her best to put it into practice for the months ahead.


“Enjoy the process, because eight Games — I’m so lucky,” she said. “But that’s the one thing I’m trying to focus more this time around, is to really enjoy the whole journey with the team and the small moments and take that time for fun for yourself too.”


Chrös McDougall has covered the Olympic and Paralympic Movement for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee since 2009 on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc. He is based in Minneapolis-St. Paul.