Oksana Masters’ Journey to Her First Gold Medal

was hard and scary was letting that love in and actually embracing it to be sustainable and the weird thing and I say this happened in 2018 because in 2018 and that's the it's my fourth games and I am I've never won a gold medal at that point and I'm favored to go into those games to win everything to win a lot of gold medals for the first time but the difference also was I believed in myself like I'm capable of being a gold medalist like I'm not just going to be that second or third best athlete anymore like I believed it in me and that is a huge huge Missing Link for an athlete like you have to believe it in you doesn't matter what other people think yeah and I finally realized it and then I fall on ice and break my elbow few weeks before we're about to leave for the games and I mean Mark like I just had my first sponsors cuz in 2014 I was living out of my car try I didn't have the money I didn't have any sponsors I didn't pay attention in math even though in Ukraine I did really good math I didn't pay attention in American school that I did I missed my how much I needed so right before we left for the 2014 games I was sleeping out of my car which was great I lost weight I was able to climb faster it worked out that's where I got my first probably easier for you to sleep in a car you know what I mean well it had a TV it didn't have like the installation but it had the TV in it like a DVD thing ni um and so like that then I was like oh my gosh I'm going to lose all of that all over again I'm going to go back to that moment but then he aror sports psychologist brought had me do this this activity because also he knew I was an angry athlete because when I shot I was not a good shooter I was like I just like cuss every time and you can't do that like I was just an aggressive my spirit animals tesmanian devil on the team because I'm not that dainty butterfly yeah um and until he told me that and then I finally started to like let that love in and let feel accept it and there's one thing to know you have it but there's a whole another thing to actually accept it within yourself and truly let it in and so what was that process like what was that Discovery going from like oh I am good and I'm kind of happy to be here and oh this is so fun to being like nah I'm the best of this I'm going to win Golds like I deserve it like was there a moment was it a series of tools and exercises that got you there cuz I feel that sometimes where I'm like I I want to I sometimes want to get past I've been in a lot of situations where I'm just happy to be there and now I'm getting to situations where I'm like no I deserve to be here I'm I want to I want to be the best of the thing that I'm doing and I feel like I'm at that moment where I'm kind of making that transition so I'm curious for you like what were the things that led to that so see this is because I still don't feel it I don't know like I don't know if it's cuz I'm afraid if I accept it I'm afraid I might then like the other end of like I have to live up to it then and people expect it and that's really not actually healthy either to be honest but 2014 is where I learned I was saying like about my RO partner Rob Jones because we were together in London we're doing that together and I always questioned what did I do to contri like did I do anything and so when I was in 2014 and I got the first my medal and my own on start line by myself whatever I put into it whatever comes out is going to be like whatever I do and I got my own I got a silver medal and I was a few seconds off from gold and that's the moment I realized like I do belong here and it was kind of baby steps kind of like where you're like you're like okay no I do deserve to be the best and to like push and strive and I I Des erve it and I can do it too and um from that happened when I the doctors when I broke my elbow they said no you're not you're not going to go to the games your games are over so I already was going into those like believing I belong in this world stage and now I was going to these games like I belong and I deserve to have a gold medal I know I'm capable of doing it and that happens and then they're saying you can't do it and it was a combination of everything just always always proving Society always proving everything one what I can and can't do and then I'm like well I'm already missing my legs how worse can it get I just get a bionic elbow cool like I put these all these hours and years and this the first time I believe I can do it I want to see what I can do with this right now and that's exactly what happened and I ended up getting second and third re re-injuring my elbow and it was a Sprint which was my favorite race and if you're passionate about it you will find a way to do it and do it well and give 100% of yourself and that's exactly like I was like I don't care I'm willing to sacrifice and they said if you do this you will not you might injure yourself in this elbow and you might not be able to race in the same way again or think about quality of life outside because I use my arm so much I'm like I don't care I believe in myself and I want to see what I'm capable of doing finishing what I started I started this I want to see where I'm going to get to and that power of belief everyone else didn't but I did and that was that Missing Link for me for so many years and um we found a way did this crazy tape job with this brace and my next race after reentering it that's how I win my gold medal and I think it's that persistence like you you have to you have to believe it in yourself cuz you and you have to really genuinely like look in the mirror and like Mark you are G to be there you are going to get this and see yourself in it it might not be that perfect like from like it might not it might take 10 years it might take 30 years but I wanted to finish what I started and my I wanted for me it was putting my that gold me medal my first gold medal around my mom's neck and I pictured that moment and that's what finally happened it didn't happen my first games I didn't make my first games I didn't win my first gold medal until my fourth par Olympic Games and that's the part of it it's like your timeline it's your timeline and so easy in this life to compare yourself and I still do that now to but then you're like you know what this is my timeline it's going to come I believe it I'm putting the work in it's not happening now because there's some more I need to learn there's something else I need to gain to be able before I get there that's needed that missing puzzle piece and that's how I thought about it I mean that's wild that is so cool do you what was that feeling like once you get the gold medal and you do put it around your mom is it anything you felt before no like I was shaking I was shaking in my legs my legs inside my legs were shaking I just like don't be that idiot to fall down on this moment and you know the way I finally got to I envisioned this perfect like bright like lights everywhere and just like this Anthem playing and fantasize this moment I none of that happened it was quite the opposite but you know it's quite fitting to our story though too because the way we met started in a very dark Stark Area of the world and life in a dark room and that's what happened I got to put that metal that gold medal around my mom's neck for the first time as the lights on the award show were getting shut down everyone was leaving it was just simple it was perfect it was just our moment it didn't have to be this like captured in this beautiful bright lights and just this Eureka moment it was perfect for us is that funny that the Simplicity and the subtlety is always the thing that means the most yeah you know like it's like you we create these Grand ideas in our head where we're like oh this is what it's going to be yeah and then actually it's the the more stripped down version It's the more like subtle nuanced human version that's like oh this is actually better yeah and then it's like later on month from now a year from now you're going to it's going to mean that much more and you just like those little things just mean even more than it did that month ago two months ago yeah make that's what makes that leaves that imprint on you and that molds you