Oksana Masters on Reinvention and the Power of Starting Again
- March 16, 2026
There is no athlete like Oksana Masters. The 36-year-old is now the most decorated U.S. Winter Paralympian of all time — and the most decorated American athlete ever to compete in both the Summer and Winter Paralympics.
She earned her first medal in rowing at the 2012 Summer Games in London and collected four golds in para biathlon and para cross-country skiing in the 2026 Winter Games in Milano Cortina, bringing her total count to 24.
Across four sports and two seasons, Masters has built a career defined by movement between summer and winter competition, over more than a decade of elite performance.
What defines her career isn’t just the medal count. Masters has repeatedly rebuilt her body and her training, returning to competition after surgeries and setbacks that forced her to start over. She has solidified a lasting legacy through a simple but demanding principle: the willingness to begin again.
Here, she reflects in her own words on reinvention, resilience and what winning means to her now.
What I’ve learned is that I’m not attached to comfort, I’m attached to growth. Constant transition forces you to let go of who you were in the last season and what you knew. Your body changes, your training changes, your goals evolve. You don’t get to stay the expert for long. You have to be willing to be a beginner again — and I love that phase. I’ve learned that I thrive in that space.
When I think about what feels most central to who I am as an athlete today, it’s not just one medal, one podium, or even a specific sport. It’s the process of constantly starting over. I’ve had to rebuild my body more times than I can count — after surgeries, after injuries, after setbacks that literally forced me back to square one. Every season has demanded a different version of me.
Resetting each season has taught me adaptability. It’s taught me how to listen to my body, how to trust the process and how to separate my identity from one sport or one result. I’m not defined by snow or summer. I’m defined by my mindset. The transition keeps me hungry. It keeps me curious. It reminds me that growth happens when you’re willing to shift, learn, rebuild and be uncomfortable.
At the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, Oksana Masters celebrated a gold medal in the women’s sitting sprint para biathlon.
"You don’t get to stay the expert for long. You have to be willing to be a beginner again — and I love that phase. I’ve learned that I thrive in that space."
Oksana Masters
Moving between seasons isn’t a disruption. It’s a rhythm. And I’ve learned how to move with it instead of resisting it. That’s the key.
Representing Team USA has always carried a responsibility that goes far beyond a race or a result. When I line up on a start line, I’m not just carrying my own story. I’m carrying the people who believed in me when the path didn’t exist yet. The adaptive athletes who are still fighting for access and opportunity and the next generation who might be watching and wondering if there’s space for them in sport. That’s something I feel every time I compete.
Competing in the Paralympics isn’t pressure in a negative way — it’s purpose. It reminds me that showing up matters. If someone sees themselves in that moment and realizes that their story or their body doesn’t disqualify them from dreaming big, then everything I’ve been through has meaning beyond my own career.
Heading into another Paralympic moment, I don’t feel defined by gold medals. I feel defined by the quiet mornings, the training-in-the-dark sessions, the moments when no one was watching and quitting would have been so much easier. That’s where the real work lives. That’s what has built every podium for me.
I’m an athlete who refuses to let circumstances decide what’s possible or define my ceiling. I’m someone who keeps evolving, keeps pushing and will always keep showing up.
Innovation has always been part of what makes longevity in sport possible. As athletes, we’re constantly learning how to adapt, whether that’s new training methods, new technology or new ways of understanding our bodies. Those advances create opportunities to push boundaries that once felt fixed.
Masters posing for a selfie with her first gold medal in Milano Corina, which she immediately sent to Nike to say, thank the team for the support.
For me, evolution is essential. When equipment, science and support systems continue to improve, it allows athletes to keep raising the level of performance and to stay competitive longer than people once thought possible.
Every race is a new moment. Everything that came before it — the setbacks, the injuries, the training — all comes down to those few minutes where you get to test yourself again. There’s something incredibly powerful about that reset. It reminds me why I fell in love with sport in the first place. It’s not about perfection. It’s about seeing what happens when preparation meets belief.
At the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, Masters captured gold in the women’s individual time trial H4–5, adding another victory to a Paralympic career that has spanned seven Games and four sports.
Early in my career, success meant proving I belonged. It meant medals. It meant podiums — something tangible I could hold and say, “See, I earned this.” I carried so much of my story with me that I felt like I had to validate it every time I stepped onto that start line. But now success looks very different. Success is about impact. It’s about creating change for para-athletes, building opportunities, pushing for accessibility and making sure every ability has a place in sport. It’s about showing the world there’s no right or wrong way to line up at the start.
If I can change one life — shift one person’s perspective on how they see themselves and what they believe they’re capable of — that’s my biggest win now. I still want to win. That fire hasn’t changed and never will. But today success is bigger than me. Medals are moments. Impact is the legacy.