The Hard Parts: A Memoir of Courage and TriumphA 2024 Christopher Award Winner “A gut-wrenching, wildly inspiring story about overcoming the most daunting obstacles through steely tenacity, sheer will, and a great big dose of motherly love.” —Jeannette Walls, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Castle An inspirational and powerful memoir from the United States’s most decorated winter Paralympic or Olympic athlete, The Hard Parts is Oksana Masters’s gripping account of overcoming extraordinary Chernobyl disaster–caused physical challenges to create a life that challenges everyone to push through what is holding them back. Oksana Masters was born in Ukraine—in the shadow of Chernobyl—seemingly with the odds stacked against her. She came into the world with one kidney, a partial stomach, six toes on each foot, webbed fingers, no right bicep, and no thumbs. Her left leg was six inches shorter than her right, and she was missing both tibias. Relinquished to the orphanage system by birth parents daunted by the staggering cost of what would be their child’s medical care, Oksana encountered numerous abuses, some horrifying. Salvation came at age seven when Gay Masters, an unmarried American professor who saw a photo of the little girl and became haunted by her eyes, waged a two-year war against stubborn adoption authorities to rescue Oksana from her circumstances. In America, Oksana endured years of operations that included a double leg amputation. Still, how could she hope to fit in when there were so many things making her different? As it turned out, she would do much more than fit in. Determined to prove herself and fueled by a drive to succeed that still smoldered from childhood, Oksana triumphed in not just one sport but four—winning against the world’s best in elite rowing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, and road cycling competitions. Now considered one of the world’s top athletes, she is the recipient of seventeen Paralympic medals, the most of any US athlete of the Winter Games, Paralympic or Olympic. Oksana’s astonishing story of journeying through a series of dark tunnels is “as true a tale of grit as I’ve ever heard, with a message filled with triumph and beauty—that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, if we are loved” (Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author of Grit). |
Contents
Section 1 | 3 |
Section 2 | 11 |
Section 3 | 12 |
Section 4 | 26 |
Section 5 | 39 |
Section 6 | 50 |
Section 7 | 63 |
Section 8 | 71 |
Section 18 | 190 |
Section 19 | 198 |
Section 20 | 222 |
Section 21 | 223 |
Section 22 | 237 |
Section 23 | 238 |
Section 24 | 247 |
Section 25 | 248 |
Section 9 | 92 |
Section 10 | 93 |
Section 11 | 112 |
Section 12 | 123 |
Section 13 | 135 |
Section 14 | 147 |
Section 15 | 148 |
Section 16 | 174 |
Section 17 | 189 |
Section 26 | 272 |
Section 27 | 282 |
Section 28 | 301 |
Section 29 | 302 |
Section 30 | 315 |
Section 31 | 321 |
Section 32 | 323 |
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Common terms and phrases
Aaron amputation anymore arms athletes biathlon birth family Blink boat Bobby body breath coach coffee comes dark doctor door dream Eileen ESPN everything eyes face feel finally Games girl going gold medal hand hand surgeries happened hard hate head hear keep Kevin Smith Khmelnytskyi kids knee Kristi Yamaguchi Kyiv Laney laughing leave look Louisville Mom's morning mother move never night oars okay Oksana ombudsman orphanage pain Paralympic Games Paralympic Nordic ski Paralympics podium prosthetic pull push Pyeongchang race Randy real leg Rob's rower rowing says scream Serbia smile Sochi someone sport stare stop story stroke surgery talk tattoo Team USA tell there's things thought told turn Ukraine Ukrainian waiting walk watch wearing weird what's who's woman World Rowing Championships