Paralympic torchbearer Oksana Masters claimed her second medal of the 2024 Paris Games on Thursday – her 19th overall – defending her gold in the women's cycling H5 road race.
The 35-year-old American secured her spot at the top of the podium after a dominant performance in Clichy-sous-Bois, pulling away from her competitors in the final kilometres of the 56.8km race. China's Bianbian Sun finished second, while Italy's Ana Maria Vitelaru placed third from a field of six riders.
The victory marked Masters's ninth career Paralympic gold, and came just 24 hours after she put in a remarkable comeback to win back-to-back titles in the H4-5 time trial on Wednesday. At the midway point, the American trailed by 30 seconds but surged ahead to finish with a winning time of 23:45.20.
Thanks to her two triumphs in Paris, Masters's already legendary Paralympic tally now stands at 19 medals. She will have the chance to win a 20th on Saturday, when she takes part in the mixed team relay H1-5 on the penultimate day of the Games.
Of Master's haul, three of her golds have come in paracycling, one of three sports she has competed in since making her Paralympic debut at the London 2012 Games.
The multi-sport athlete has also won medals in pararowing and paraskiing, making her one of the most decorated Paralympians in history. She currently holds nine gold medals, seven silver, and three bronze, and she's not done yet.
While her sporting career may seem like a fairy tale, her start in life was anything but.
Masters was born in Ukraine in 1989 with congenital disabilities caused by radiation exposure from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Her deformities included the absence of weight-bearing bones in her legs, a sixth toe on each foot, and webbed fingers without thumbs. She was also missing part of her stomach, her right biceps, and one kidney. She was put up for adoption at birth and spent a traumatic childhood in an orphanage. At age seven, she was adopted from an orphanage by an American mother and raised in Louisville, Kentucky.
By the age of 14, Masters had both legs amputated and underwent additional surgeries to modify her fingers into thumbs, improving her ability to function independently.
Encouraged by her mother to participate in sports, Masters began adaptive rowing as a teenager—a sport she fell in love with, kickstarting her Paralympic career. She made her debut at the 2012 London Games, where she won a bronze medal, becoming the first American to medal in that category.
A back injury ended her rowing career, but she soon found a passion for the slopes, competing in para Nordic skiing at the Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018, and Beijing 2022 Games, amassing seven medals, including two golds. Masters made her Paralympic paracycling debut at the Rio 2016 Games, narrowly missing out on a medal, but in Tokyo, she made up for it by winning two gold medals in the hand-cycling time trial and road race.
