Paralympic athlete

Oksana was born in 1989, three years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, with several radiation-induced birth defects, 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. 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 biological children. Oksana is a multiple medal-winning athlete and Paralympian in Nordic skiing, competing in the 1km sprint, 5km, 10km, and 12km events. After moving to the United States in 1997, both of Oksana's legs were eventually amputated above the knee—her left leg at age nine and her right leg at age 14—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. 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, and graduated from the city's Atherton High School in 2008.