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Oksana Masters Says 'Good to Get Back on Snow' as She Trains for Winter Games After Tokyo Paralympics

Oksana Masters
Oksana Masters

Mauro Ujetto/NurPhoto via Getty Oksana Masters

Being a dual-sport athlete isn't easy, but Oksana Masters does it with grace.

Masters, 32, chatted with reporters this week about the challenges of the tight turnaround between this year's Summer Paralympic Games in Tokyo and the upcoming Winter Paralympics in Beijing, starting March 2021.

"My personal transition has been a little bit rocky, but it's been so good to get back on snow," Masters said during the virtual Team USA Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics Media Summit on Monday. "It just got back from a training camp."

The cross-country skier continued explaining, "My transition is a little bit different from the past when I transitioned from summer to winter only because I had an unexpected health thing leading into Tokyo, which took a lot of time out of the gym for me, and so I'm kind of playing catch up on ski and also strength."

RELATED: Oksana Masters Becomes Fourth American Woman to Win Gold at Summer and Winter Paralympics

Still, Masters said, she knows that "when the moment comes, I have a really good team behind me with my coaches."

Masters won her third career gold medal and first para cycling medal in the women's H4-5 time trial at the Fuji International Speedway in Japan during the Tokyo Paralympics this past summer. With the victory, Masters became the fourth U.S. woman — and sixth American —to win a gold medal in both the summer and winter Paralympic Games.

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Masters — who was born in Ukraine with multiple radiation-induced birth defects from Chernobyl that led to the loss of both her legs — has represented Team USA in the 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020 Paralympics in three different sports: rowing, cross-country skiing and hand cycling, respectively. If she secures a spot on Team USA, Beijing will be her sixth Games.

To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, visit TeamUSA.org. Watch the Winter Olympics, beginning this February, and the Winter Paralympics, beginning this March, on NBC.