Abandoned, abused and belittled: how Oksana Masters survived a torturous childhood and became a world-beating athlete

News Snapshot:

You wouldn’t necessarily expect an injury to a finger to derail an entire competition season and threaten to end a sporting career, but this is the situation Oksana Masters, the US Paralympic skier and cyclist, found herself in last year. “I’ve had injuries and I’m used to missing time, but not a whole year like that,” she says. “I underestimated the mental side.” But in a life as traumatic and triumphant as Masters’, a broken finger is just one more obstacle to be overcome. She was born in Ukraine in 1989, with a range of disabilities caused by radiation from...