Oksana Masters
 Oksana Masters | |||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birth name | Oksana Alexandrovna Bondarchuk | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | American | ||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
June 19, 1989 Khmelnytskyi, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union | ||||||||||||||||||
| Residence | Louisville, Kentucky | ||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) (2012) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 122 lb (55 kg) (2012) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Website | Oksana Masters athlete bio | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||
| Country | USA | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Adaptive rowing, Cross-country skiing | ||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Mixed Sculls | ||||||||||||||||||
| Team | U.S. Paralympic | ||||||||||||||||||
| Partner | Rob Jones | ||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Justin Lednar, Bob Hurley, Roger Payne, Brad Alan Lewis | ||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||
| Paralympic finals | 2012 Summer Paralympics: Trunk and arms mixed double sculls – Bronze | ||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Updated on March 09, 2014. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Oksana Masters (born June 19, 1989) is a Ukrainian-born American Paralympic rower and cross-country skier from Louisville, Kentucky.[1] At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, she won the first ever United States medal in trunk and arms mixed double sculls.[2] She was named to the U.S. Nordic skiing team for the 2014 Winter Paralympics.[3]
Early life
Oksana was born with several radiation-induced birth defects,[4] including tibial hemimelia (resulting in different leg lengths), missing weight-bearing shinbones in her calves, webbed fingers with no thumbs, and six toes on each foot.[5] She was abandoned by her birth parents at a Ukrainian orphanage where she lived until age 7. After she turned 7, Oksana was adopted by Gay Masters, an unmarried American speech therapy professor with no children of her own.[5][6]
After moving to the United States in 1997, both of Oksana's legs were eventually amputated above the knee—her left leg at age eight and her right leg at age 13—as they became increasingly painful and unable to support her weight. Oksana also had surgery to modify her innermost fingers on each hand so they could function as thumbs.[6]
When she arrived in the U.S., her mother was a professor at the University at Buffalo; she moved to Louisville, Kentucky in 2001 when her mother took a faculty position at the University of Louisville,[7] and graduated from the city's Atherton High School in 2008.[8]
Rowing
Masters began adaptive rowing in 2002 at age 13,[5][6] shortly before her right leg was amputated.[5] She continued afterward and began adaptive rowing competitively. In 2010 she competed at the CRASH-B Sprints, setting a world record in the process. She was also the first adaptive sculler to compete in the Indianapolis Rowing Club "Head of the Eagle" regatta, winning the women's open singles event in the process.[6]
In 2011, Masters and teammate Augusto Perez placed second at the Adaptive World Championship trials.[6]
2012 London Paralympic Games
In preparation for the 2012 London Paralympic Games, Masters teamed with Rob Jones, a United States Marine Corps veteran who lost both legs to an IED explosion in Afghanistan.[5][6] Masters and Jones called themselves "Team Bad Company"[9] and proceeded to win both the Adaptive World Championships Trials and the Final Paralympic Qualification Regatta by substantial margins.[6]
On September 2, at the 2012 London Paralympics, Masters and Jones finished third—winning the first-ever United States medal (bronze) in trunk and arms mixed double sculls with a final time of 4:05.56. They finished behind China (gold) and France (silver) while just edging out Great Britain.[2]
Media appearances
Masters' life story has been featured in a number of media sources, including Spirit, Southwest Airlines' in-flight magazine[6] and Sports Illustrated.[5] She was also named one of the "11 hottest paralympic athletes" by msn NOW,[10] was named one of ten U.S. athletes to watch by The Guardian,[11] and posed nude for ESPN The Magazine's annual "Body Issue".[12] Apple featured her in a "Making a difference. One app at a time." video, where she explains how her life changed with iOS apps.[13]
References
- ↑ USRowing (2012), Oksana Masters, retrieved September 11, 2012
- 1 2 Johnson, Stephen (September 5, 2012). "Lovettsville veteran wins bronze in Paralympics". Loudoun Times-Mirror. London: Times Community Media. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- ↑ U.S. Olympic Committee (February 21, 2013). "2014 U.S. Paralympic Team Named". TeamUSA.org. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
- ↑ Holm, Jeremy (August 25, 2012). "Opinion: Let's not forget about Team USA's other half". KSL.com. Salt Lake City: Deseret Digital Media. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rosenberg, Michael (August 27, 2012). "The Marine And The Orphan". Sports Illustrated. Time Inc. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Cengel, Katya. "Oksana" (PDF). Spirit. Southwest Airlines. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- ↑ "Daughter of Louisville physician to go for gold at 2014 Winter Paralympics" (Press release). University of Louisville Physicians. March 6, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
- ↑ Brownstein, Glenn (March 9, 2014). "Louisville's Oksana Masters wins milestone silver medal in Winter Paralympics skiing". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved March 10, 2014. (soft paywall)
- ↑ Jackman, Tom (August 30, 2012). "Lovettsville's Rob Jones to compete in rowing in London Paralympic games". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- ↑ "Meet the 11 hottest Paralympic athletes". msn NOW. August 24, 2012. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- ↑ Parker, Graham (August 24, 2012). "Paralympics 2012: 10 US athletes to watch in London". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- ↑ Daily Mail Reporter (July 12, 2012). "Paralympian rower bares all for ESPN's Body Issue and reveals "for me, eating is one of the hardest things"". The Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers Ltd. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- ↑ iOS – Making a difference. One app at a time. Retrieved July 7, 2013.