Main content

Oksana Masters

How sport helped a multi-talented Paralympian come to terms with her traumatic past.

Abandoned by her birth parents, Oksana Masters had birth defects caused by radiation, most likely from Chernobyl. Trapped and struggling to survive inside an abusive orphanage system in Ukraine, at the age of eight she was adopted by an American single mother.

Oksana tells us how she used the trauma of her youth to push herself to sporting greatness, including winning medals at the winter and summer Paralympics. Harnessing the anger and drawing on massive reserves of determination, this is a remarkable story of coming to terms with trauma and refusing to let it define you.

Available now

39 minutes

Last on

Sat 19 Jun 202101:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Wed 16 Jun 202103:32GMT
  • Wed 16 Jun 202104:32GMT
  • Wed 16 Jun 202110:32GMT
  • Wed 16 Jun 202121:32GMT
  • Wed 16 Jun 202122:32GMT
  • Sat 19 Jun 202101:32GMT

Podcast