From Chernobyl to World Champion | Oksana Masters
Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais
Dr. Michael Gervais
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2025
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What if I told you that one of the most dominant athletes of our time began her life in unimaginable hardship - and then rewrote her story, chapter by chapter?
This week, we revisit one of the most powerful conversations in the Finding Mastery vault with Oksana Masters; multi-sport Paralympic gold medalist and one of the most decorated Paralympic athletes in U.S. history (with 19 medals).
Born in Ukraine with birth defects caused by radiation exposure from Chernobyl, abandoned to an orphanage, and later adopted in the U.S, Oksana’s journey is a masterclass in grit, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of agency. Her story is not only about becoming a world-class athlete - it’s also about reclaiming her narrative, finding freedom through adversity, and turning deep pain into fuel for thriving.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
- How Oksana transformed unimaginable hardship into strength and purpose
- Why reclaiming agency - even in the smallest ways - can change the trajectory of a life
- The role joy and play can have as tools for survival in the darkest moments
- How she navigated trauma while striving for greatness on the world stage
- What resilience really looks like when challenge isn’t avoided, but embraced
This is a conversation about courage, hope, and an indomitable human spirit, an episode that will stay with you long after you’ve listened.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I was born in Ukraine, and it wasn't until I got to America. |
| 0:03.0 | I went to my first dentist, and they saw radiation in my teeth. |
| 0:06.0 | And that's when they were like, this is most likely Chernobyl that caused all this. |
| 0:10.5 | What if I told you that one of the most dominant athletes of our time |
| 0:14.0 | began her life in unimaginable hardship? |
| 0:16.7 | And then rewrote her story chapter by chapter. |
| 0:20.3 | Society determines people with disabilities. |
| 0:22.9 | I'm invisible. |
| 0:23.7 | My story's been written for me as a girl with a disability, as an orphan, as a female in sports. |
| 0:29.3 | I wanted to rewrite my own story. |
| 0:31.3 | Welcome back. |
| 0:32.0 | Welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast, where we dive into the minds of the world's greatest thinkers and doers. |
| 0:37.0 | I'm your host, |
| 0:38.1 | Dr. Michael Jerva, by trade and training a high performance psychologist. Now, the idea behind |
| 0:42.4 | these conversations is simple, to sit with the extraordinarily to really learn how they work |
| 0:47.6 | from the inside out. And today, we're doing just that by bringing back another unforgettable |
| 0:52.5 | conversation from the Finding Mastery Vault with the |
| 0:55.2 | incredible Oxana Masters. When you think of an athlete like Serena Williams or Michael Jordan, |
| 1:00.5 | the person that pops into 90% of people's minds is what they've achieved and the greatest of all |
| 1:05.8 | time. But when you think of a Paralympian, oh, well, what happened to your body? Where did you come from? Where you come from, it's important. It's shaped you. But it's not your identity of who you are. Oksana is a multi-sport Paralympic gold medalist. One of the most decorated Paralympians in U.S. history. Oksana's journey, it's a masterclass in what it means to reclaim agency in a life that offered her none. |
| 1:29.0 | I want to give a disclaimer here. |
| 1:31.0 | This episode deals with some pretty heavy subjects around abuse and they could be triggering for you. |
... |
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