Oksana Masters Nearly Missed the Paralympics Due to an Infection Days Before. Now She's Dominating with 3 Golds (Exclusive)

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Oksana Masters in Italy on March 11, 2026
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NEED TO KNOW​

• Paralympic champion Oksana Masters reveals details of the leg infection that almost kept her from competing in the 2026 Winter Paralympics
• Masters, who has won three gold medals so far, credits the Team USA doctors who were in Italy for the Olympic Games for helping her be ready for competition
• Masters says her "ultimate gold medal moment" however, would be if her fiancée Aaron Pike nabs his first Paralympic medal

One gold medal this year wasn't enough for Oksana Masters. Neither was two.

Masters, 36, is three gold medals richer since the 2026 Winter Paralympics kicked off on March 6, bringing her total as the most decorated U.S. Paralympian in history to 12 golds and 22 medals overall.

But three weeks before the Games, Masters wasn't sure she'd make it to Italy at all. "I had an infection that came back in my leg that I had had last season, that took me out and put me in the hospital for a week," she tells PEOPLE.

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Oksana Masters on March 11, 2026 in Italy
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Three weeks before Masters was set to compete in her eighth Paralympics, the infection returned. "There was a point where if I didn't get the medical help that I needed, if I didn't get to them a few days before or later, then I wouldn't have been able to race and wouldn't be here," says Masters, noting that the biggest aids to her recovery were the hour-long drives to visit Team USA's doctors in Cortina d'Ampezzo during her training camp, which overlapped with the Olympic Games.

"It would have been a very different story."

On top of the infection that returned to her leg, which required "a lot of medication to find one that would help stabilize it," Masters suffered a concussion leading up to her competition. "The hardest part was getting a concussion and just waiting to be told when I was cleared to train again while the weeks and days were ticking down."

Masters was "getting nervous" as the Games approached, but says she "had confidence" in her medical team to get her ready to compete. "And if not, I was ready to cut up my sit-ski and create the hold, whatever I needed to still do it," she says.

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Oksana Masters in Italy on March 10, 2026
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Masters' three gold medals in Italy came in women's Para biathlon sprint sitting on March 7, women's Para cross-country sprint sitting three days later on March 10 and the 10 kilometer sitting Para cross-country race on March 11.

Two days before the Games, Masters revealed her health struggles on social media, calling the three prior weeks "a forced hard reset" that "tested me in ways splits and intervals never could," in the caption. "It’s easy to be an athlete when everything‘s going right," Masters continued in the post. "But when the hard moments come at worst time and you’re at the bottom rebuilding, THATS what shows the true character of the athlete.

After competing in her first event at the 2026 Games, Masters says she was able to enjoy a moment with her fiancé, Paralympian Aaron Pike, who she's been dating since 2014.

"When I finished my race, he was warming up, so it was really fun to be able to see him right after and hug him right before his race, and just experience that together," says Masters, who claims Pike, 39, gives "the world's best hugs."

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Aaron Pike and Oksana Masters on July 20, 2022
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While the history she's made in Italy isn't lost on her, Masters says her "ultimate gold medal moment will be when he earns his first Paralympic medal."

"I know how hard he's worked and that's really, really what I want to see in these Games," Masters says of her beau.

Pike narrowly missed the podium in men's Para biathlon, and came in fifth and sixth in his other events, but Masters' fiancé has three more chances to win a Paralympic medal before the Games wrap up on March 15.

To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Milan Cortina Paralympics, beginning March 6, on NBC and Peacock.

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