Eight-time Paralympic medalist Oksana Masters is prepared to compete as a cyclist in the Tokyo Paralympic Games. The minute she’s finished with the 2020 Games, her attention will shift to Beijing 2022, where she will compete as a cross-country skier in the Winter Games.
The former rower and adaptive athlete is a double amputee who spent her early years in a Ukrainian orphanage prior to being adopted by an American college professor. Radiation from the Chornobyl nuclear disaster caused Masters to be born with one leg significantly shorter than the other, with both legs missing weight-bearing bones, and with five fingers and no thumbs.
She led an active life after being adopted, and after having one leg amputated at the age of nine and the other at 14 years old, her prosthetics permitted her to explore sports on a deeper level. She found hand cycling and is on a mission to get more women into the sport. But before she does, she is off to Tokyo while finishing her recovery from recent leg surgery.
The now 32-year-old para-cyclist loves Oreos and understands how much of an important role nutrition plays in her training and hectic schedule. Below are Oksana’s personal dietary favorites and some health tips.
Breakfast buffet
The most important meal of the day depends on the prior night’s preparation. Often, she makes overnight oats because it’s quick and easy, though sometimes she will eat Grape Nuts cereal. The cereal is warmed in the microwave and eaten with blueberries. The first workout of the day ensues, followed by a rice bowl. Oksana relies on her boyfriend, another Paralympic athlete, to do much of her cooking. He makes rice with a rice cooker, adds an over-easy egg, turkey sausage, sautéed spinach and kimchi. Probiotic nutrition through food is a fundamental principle. Oksana drinks a ton of black coffee using a pour-over or espresso machine.
Keeping it simple
Following a workout, Masters enjoys a protein shake made of Klean Athlete’s whey isolate mixed with orange juice for carbs. The Paralympians do a big meal prep for an entire week: chicken breasts, black beans and broccoli is the menu every day. The goal is to always eat healthy and stay away from snacking on junk food while trying to make a meal. Dinner is usually the same as lunch, or some salmon may provide a change of menu. Different seasonings are used to change things up – Oksana loves dill seasoning with salmon.
Olympic food prep
When traveling to races, she brings a lot of food and her own coffee. For Oksana, coffee is a ritual. She loves the entire process of coffee, hand grinding her coffee beans and making her own coffee in an Aero Press. She transports her own foods, controlling her own destiny, and she is always well supplied.
The Paralympic Games being in Tokyo has motivated Masters to add Japanese seasonings to her food, especially Japanese sesame oil. Eggs and chicken both get sesame oil. After her first Paralympics, Oksana learned that it is important to familiarize herself with a new country’s flavors. In this case, she has adapted seasonings and oils to get her body used to kimchi and other fermented foods/oils. If not, the local cuisine can be a shock compared to American culture and food.
Key to Good Borscht
On the road, Oksana travels with freeze dried Nomad Nutrition borscht (beet soup) because of her Ukrainian heritage. At home she eats her homemade borscht with a huge helping of sour cream. The key to great borscht is fresh beets that need to be marinated and seasoning. She uses dill seasoning, first roasting the beets in the oven, making certain they’re cooked until they become sweeter. The beets are then chopped up, cooked in the soup and left to simmer for a long while.
Oreos good, donuts better
When exercising on a trainer indoors, Oksana watches baking shows. She loves to talk about Oreos, likes munching on them, but prefers donuts. She frequents an establishment close to home called Pandemonium Donuts where the baked goods are the size of a person’s face. She loves cake and yeast donuts, but her personal favorites are the fluffy yeast ones. She also loves fruity donuts with icing and toppings. Her philosophy is that if she is going to indulge in a donut, she will commit herself to go all the way, enjoying every last bite and moment of it.
The importance of listening to one’s body
Good nutrition has been a learning process. Growing up in an orphanage, Oksana went long periods of time without eating, so it took some time to learn her hunger cues. Today she makes sure she’s eating enough, instead of being concerned with the quantity of carbs. Her philosophy is that if her body craves something, it means she needs it for a reason. Craving a dozen Oreos? Probably not. Craving one or two Oreos because of a sugar need? Probably yes.
Oksana concluded that one of her big training mistakes was not eating consistently throughout the day. Her old routine was a big breakfast early in the day, then eating nothing else until much later. These days she monitors her blood sugar and hunger levels during the entire day. For a while Masters thought she had a health issue, as her blood sugar dropped and spiked all day. In reality, her blood sugar was dropping due to not eating for hours and hours.
Ihor Stelmach may be reached at [email protected].