Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. Sure, Michael Phelps has a bunch of
Speaker 1: Olympic medals, but he only got his for swimming, so
Speaker 1: we ain't impressed because our guest today has medals in
Speaker 1: several different disciplines and in summer and winter games. So
Speaker 1: take that, Phelps. Welcome everybody into this episode of Aby
Speaker 1: and TJ Roapes. This is I'm excited. Our guest today
Speaker 1: is someone I want more people to.
Speaker 2: Know exactly, Oksana Masters. She is the most decorated winter
Speaker 2: para Olympian of all time. And it's funny you mentioned
Speaker 2: Phelps because I was looking up the many articles that
Speaker 2: have been written about her and they said she dominates
Speaker 2: sports to a Phelpsian degree. That is exactly how they
Speaker 2: described her, because yes, she's a multi sport athlete. You
Speaker 2: don't see that when you look up Olympic athletes this level. No, no,
Speaker 2: because you have to be focused singularly on what you
Speaker 2: do and do it best, you know better than everyone else. Correct,
Speaker 2: But no, she has multiple sports and I love summer
Speaker 2: and winter Olympics.
Speaker 3: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: Right now?
Speaker 3: How do you do that?
Speaker 1: And if you're not impressed enough already, Just before we
Speaker 1: came on to record this episode. We were just chatting
Speaker 1: with her before we bring her in, and she told
Speaker 1: us she just went for a ride, a recovery ride
Speaker 1: for an hour and forty five minutes.
Speaker 2: Just an easy just an easy bike ride, an hour
Speaker 2: and forty five minutes. That's basically the equivalent of running
Speaker 2: a half marathon. Yes, well for us, for us, for Olympians,
Speaker 2: not so much.
Speaker 1: But for us, let's please say hello to Aksana Master's
Speaker 1: dear lady, thank you so so much for being here
Speaker 1: and explain to people like you explained to us, why
Speaker 1: isn't an hour and forty five minutes cycling for you
Speaker 1: just a cool down, a recovery ride. Explain that.
Speaker 4: Well. First of all, thank you guys so much for
Speaker 4: the like the extremely generous behind intro. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 4: I have never been compared to like, oh Phelps cnsque
Speaker 4: like comparison at all. That was so funny. Also, you
Speaker 4: guys are runners, like you guys run, I have three
Speaker 4: wheels and gears and stuff like that. A big difference
Speaker 4: doing an hour forty five cool down to running for
Speaker 4: an hour and forty five for sure, But because it's
Speaker 4: an hour forty five cool down, my races can vary,
Speaker 4: like the time trial is between it can be like
Speaker 4: a five mile race to about a fifteen sixteen mile
Speaker 4: race all out you and the clock, no drafting, but
Speaker 4: a road race and pack racing like the one coming
Speaker 4: up in Paris is seventy seventy one kilometers long, so
Speaker 4: it's like it's and it's gonna take a while. So
Speaker 4: it's like just about double of the marathon. So because
Speaker 4: we'll be racing for three hours on the bike, it's
Speaker 4: just putting in that sweat equity in that time.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's a lot of endurance that you have to
Speaker 2: prepare for. So we mentioned you have competed in para rowing,
Speaker 2: para biathlon, Paris, Nordic skiing, paras cycling.
Speaker 3: I can't even keep it straight.
Speaker 2: And you've been competing in the Paralympics since twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: What are you What are the specific events or I
Speaker 2: should even say sports that you're competing in for the
Speaker 2: Paris Paralympics.
Speaker 4: For the Paris Paralympics, I'm getting old. It's just cycling.
Speaker 4: I'm sticking to two events only and doing that and
Speaker 4: in cycling the road events, so the time trial and
Speaker 4: the road race, and yeah, and then in two years
Speaker 4: from now is the Milong twenty twenty six Games, So
Speaker 4: I'd be lying if I'm not training for Paris going
Speaker 4: into it with literally I already checked out the gym
Speaker 4: and the minute my events start, I'm going to transition
Speaker 4: to the winter side of cross country skiing. But yeah,
Speaker 4: it's just those two events, and it's going to be
Speaker 4: It's going to be, honestly really challenging because in the
Speaker 4: US cycling is such an underrepresented sports and the resources
Speaker 4: for it isn't as equal as my European competitors, where
Speaker 4: endurance sports and cycling is the Olympic level of their team,
Speaker 4: they put the same resources and investments in as to
Speaker 4: their paracycling team too. So it's going to be really
Speaker 4: interesting but fun, and I'm hoping to put cycling more
Speaker 4: on a map for the US, especially for la coming up.
Speaker 1: You know, why isn't it there yet? Why is the
Speaker 1: European Why are the European countries so better or making
Speaker 1: more of an investment and has it been getting better
Speaker 1: over the years that we still got a long way
Speaker 1: to go here?
Speaker 4: Oh, in the US, I mean, it's gotten so much
Speaker 4: better for para sport in general, there's still so much
Speaker 4: that can be done, and it's very easy, simple things
Speaker 4: like you guys allot to share my journey in my
Speaker 4: sports with you and letting the world hear that because
Speaker 4: that's something that we can get better on and hear
Speaker 4: more stories of incredible Paralympic athletes that I have a
Speaker 4: lot of teammates who are gold medalists and our world
Speaker 4: record holders, but you don't hear it because it's not
Speaker 4: the culture within our country for endurance sports besides the marathon. Really,
Speaker 4: but like the viewership is getting so much better. The
Speaker 4: sponsorship opportunities are so much better for para sports than
Speaker 4: it was in twenty twelve when I was an athlete.
Speaker 4: But in Europe in general, like cycling is just a
Speaker 4: way of life, and endurance sports in general are just more.
Speaker 4: Like it's so cool racing in Europe because in cycling,
Speaker 4: when you're a world champion, you get the rainbow stripe jerseys.
Speaker 4: In the US, if I'm out writing or walk in
Speaker 4: or something with my rainbow stripe jersey here, no one
Speaker 4: understands what that is. We were at a hotel and
Speaker 4: Belgium and just this regular old couple were like they
Speaker 4: see the Jersey and they're saying something in and they're
Speaker 4: in whatever language that they were speaking in, and they're like, oh, champion, champion,
Speaker 4: because they recognized because it was so universal.
Speaker 2: Axana, you should walk around with your seventeen Olympic Paralympic
Speaker 2: medals and then they would know you you have seven gold,
Speaker 2: seven silver, and three bronze. I bet you'd get some attention.
Speaker 4: I don't know about that. I just want to help
Speaker 4: inspire the next generation of young girls, specifically to see
Speaker 4: all the different sports and to not limit yourself to
Speaker 4: try just one from a young age. Try them all
Speaker 4: until you find that one that you love, one that
Speaker 4: means yeah. And if that means you have like seventeen
Speaker 4: medals along the way, then.
Speaker 1: Which one is your favorite event?
Speaker 4: Oh that's so tough because it's like which one's your
Speaker 4: favorite child.
Speaker 1: My mom could tell you which one's your favorite child.
Speaker 3: It's not.
Speaker 4: He's like, it's me.
Speaker 1: She knows me already.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say probably rowing to be honest, it's
Speaker 4: the one I don't compete in now, but it's that sport.
Speaker 4: It's it's like that first one, my first games. A
Speaker 4: lot of people don't know. I tried to actually make
Speaker 4: the Paralympic team in two thousand and eight when I
Speaker 4: found out about the Paralympics and I didn't make it
Speaker 4: in rowing. In that and it was that moment where
Speaker 4: I did not make that team in rowing is when
Speaker 4: I realized how badly I really wanted this and how
Speaker 4: much more it meant to me than just representing Team
Speaker 4: USA and going to the Paralympics. But you have also
Speaker 4: better to handlines in rowing than cycling. No handlines. You
Speaker 4: just look deathly pale.
Speaker 3: That's so funny. I love that. I love that you
Speaker 3: even went there. That's great.
Speaker 2: You know, I want to bring people up on your story.
Speaker 2: It is you say you want to be an inspiration.
Speaker 2: I mean, you just read the first few sentences of
Speaker 2: what your early childhood was like, and it's it's mind
Speaker 2: blowing that you are where you are and you're doing
Speaker 2: what you're doing. You were born in Ukraine and you
Speaker 2: were born with multiple congenital disabilities.
Speaker 3: Correct. Can you tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So it wasn't actually until I was adopted. When
Speaker 4: I was almost eight, went to my first dentist in
Speaker 4: America where they took X ray's my teeth and they
Speaker 4: saw radiation signs of radiation in my adult teeth, and
Speaker 4: so linking it to where I was and the path
Speaker 4: of Chernobyl and the nuclear power plant leak that went
Speaker 4: off there, even though it was two years prior from
Speaker 4: when I was born or three years wow, like the
Speaker 4: radiation levels rise even higher throughout the years, even more
Speaker 4: so than what it was the first explosion of it. Also,
Speaker 4: my village where I lived in one of the orphanages,
Speaker 4: had an active nuclear power plant that would also leak frequently,
Speaker 4: and so when I it was Yeah, so they just
Speaker 4: concluded because of my birth, defects were everywhere. There were
Speaker 4: my teeth, my organs, my hands. I don't have a
Speaker 4: bicep on my right side, so if I'm not focusing,
Speaker 4: I felt weird veer off to the left because I's
Speaker 4: not just have to have that much more focus on
Speaker 4: it and in utero deformities or BRIT's effects. It's the
Speaker 4: only reason, how what that explains for all of my
Speaker 4: body having a little bit of an impact in the
Speaker 4: developing stages, where if it was just like oftentimes it's
Speaker 4: other one side of the body that has an impairment
Speaker 4: like a left and a right or it's very specific limbs.
Speaker 4: But to have organs and to have enamel stripped from
Speaker 4: my teeth when inside, like that's the only thing I
Speaker 4: can do it before birth is radiation. And I'm just
Speaker 4: so bombed because when I found out about how I
Speaker 4: got to be born with all these disabilities, are this deformities?
Speaker 4: Like why couldn't I be like Hulk, Like he gets
Speaker 4: that all that stuff, But I have this thing where
Speaker 4: my hair won't curl, Like that's not cool, but I
Speaker 4: mean it is.
Speaker 2: It is remarkable, and I love that you can look
Speaker 2: at it with humor, because that is sometimes the best
Speaker 2: medicine of all, dealing with everything you've dealt with. But
Speaker 2: this is all from the aftermath of Chernobyl. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just it's crazy. But you had your legs were
Speaker 2: different lengths correct, and you didn't You had no thumbs.
Speaker 2: Each hand had web fingers. Each foot had six toes.
Speaker 3: I mean this and your biological parents.
Speaker 4: I was so proud of that six toes. I should
Speaker 4: have stuck to swimming. I was born with web toes
Speaker 4: and web feet.
Speaker 1: Why it's true.
Speaker 3: I guess that would be helpful.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you probably Yeah, you'd get in trouble because
Speaker 2: you just had an advantage over everyone else.
Speaker 4: Yeah, then watch out, Michael Felts, right, and then you
Speaker 4: really could do it.
Speaker 3: But your biological parents left you at an orphanage, correct.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And before I really realized how the adult understanding
Speaker 4: of why one would do that, especially to the orphanages
Speaker 4: that I was left, and I was so angry at
Speaker 4: them because I could not understand why somebody would do that.
Speaker 4: And my mom, who adopted me, is so kind, so loving,
Speaker 4: and always gave them a benefit of the doubt, and
Speaker 4: she was correct. Everything that she told me was growing
Speaker 4: up is I'm sure they loved you, and it was
Speaker 4: the hardest decision they had to make that they just
Speaker 4: didn't have the resources to provide with all the things
Speaker 4: that you were going to need to be healthy. And
Speaker 4: later on, that's what I find out was one of
Speaker 4: the reasons is the government just basically eventually just told
Speaker 4: them like she died, to stop trying, like they did
Speaker 4: not want to give me away, and the government just
Speaker 4: said she died, so they just relinquished me. Little did
Speaker 4: they know I actually did not die. I'm too stubborn
Speaker 4: for that. I think die and I've lived my first
Speaker 4: years and three different orphanages, And the way it works
Speaker 4: is you go into like from birth to two, you're
Speaker 4: in one orphanage, and then from two to five you're
Speaker 4: in like a baby home, and then five years old
Speaker 4: you're considered an adult, so you move into the adult
Speaker 4: orphanage with other kids that are also up to fifteen
Speaker 4: at fifteen for a female, sixteen for men. And if
Speaker 4: you're not adopted by them, they just you're just put
Speaker 4: out on the street, or a lot of the men
Speaker 4: go into wow military.
Speaker 1: Did you ever have a follow up or connect with
Speaker 1: your birth parents afterwards? Do you have any idea where
Speaker 1: they are, what happened to them?
Speaker 4: I do, so I do now through more, I found
Speaker 4: out I have two biological brothers, which is so crazy
Speaker 4: all through because when I was I had the opportunity
Speaker 4: to go to the US Embassy in Kiev for a
Speaker 4: diplomatic reason in twenty fifteen, because at that time it
Speaker 4: was around the twenty fifth anniversary of the Ada Act,
Speaker 4: and also because in twenty fourteen, not to get political
Speaker 4: and bring it up, but right at like between the
Speaker 4: socio Olympic and Paralympic Games, Russia invaded Ukraine and a
Speaker 4: lot of the military men were coming back with amputations
Speaker 4: and all these injuries, so it's kind of a twofold.
Speaker 4: I went back there because of the anniversary of the
Speaker 4: Ada Act here in America and how to make society
Speaker 4: more accessible for civilians, but also for the servicemen and
Speaker 4: women who are fighting to protect their freedom, and to
Speaker 4: show what's possible through prosthetics through wheelchairs. Little did I
Speaker 4: know I'd have to climb up four flights of stairs
Speaker 4: to get up to where these people are in their hospital,
Speaker 4: which was wild. And then I also went there because
Speaker 4: this is kind of like a short story. I'm just
Speaker 4: making very long now at this point, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 4: But I also went there because Ukraine's trying to get
Speaker 4: rid of orphanage government ran orphanages, and there's two different ones.
Speaker 4: There's local orphanages and then there's government ran orphanages, and
Speaker 4: those are the government ones are where all the corruption
Speaker 4: happens and the mistreatment happens, and that's where I was
Speaker 4: from birth. They're trying to turn it more into foster
Speaker 4: care and to provide these homes were kids can understand
Speaker 4: and grow up with a homely environment instead of an
Speaker 4: institutionalized environment, and so that was kind of strange. But
Speaker 4: because I was there, I literally my birth parents found
Speaker 4: out I was alive. I was there. I did not
Speaker 4: get to meet them there. I wasn't ready for that,
Speaker 4: but I do want to one day. I want to
Speaker 4: meet them so bad. So I do want to ask
Speaker 4: them where did I get this awful hairline from? Is it?
Speaker 4: Who is it from? And why I ask that on
Speaker 4: to me? Out of all the things you could. Yeah, like,
Speaker 4: I'm in communication with my two biological brothers right now,
Speaker 4: and that's the hardest thing to be honest, is with
Speaker 4: what's going on right now with Ukraine. Is just like
Speaker 4: I have a dream that can only come true in Ukraine,
Speaker 4: and I really hope one day there is a Ukraine
Speaker 4: to go back to to meet to know where where
Speaker 4: I'm from and just get to know this identity. I've
Speaker 4: always had a question mark that. Yeah, so I just
Speaker 4: hopefully that will happen.
Speaker 1: But yeah, well that is I wasn't expecting that story.
Speaker 1: But how long I'm sorry, no, no, no, what I'm saying
Speaker 1: it was, I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting
Speaker 1: to hear. When you you know, given all you've gone through,
Speaker 1: what you would feel about your birth parents, and to
Speaker 1: hear you now, it sounds like you had to get
Speaker 1: to a place. But how long did it take in life?
Speaker 1: What age were you before you some of that anger
Speaker 1: you even talked about started to maybe subside, and you
Speaker 1: didn't hold a grudge against.
Speaker 4: Them, Oh my gosh. Honestly, honest, I'd be lying if
Speaker 4: I say I didn't have a little bit of anger now.
Speaker 4: But it's not to them. It's just it's just that.
Speaker 4: And I get this A lot A lot of people
Speaker 4: are like, how are you so proud to be Ukrainian?
Speaker 4: Why do you still love a country and so proud
Speaker 4: in where the Ukrainian flag when you have all these
Speaker 4: horrible memories, And yes, I do, but that wasn't the
Speaker 4: country that it wasn't Ukraine. It was just a few
Speaker 4: bad eggs. They're everywhere. They're within our families, they're within
Speaker 4: our communities. There's a few bad eggs. And I could
Speaker 4: choose to let those few bad eggs determine how I
Speaker 4: view where I come from and my identity, which is
Speaker 4: that's my identity. I'm very proud to be Ukrainian and
Speaker 4: I have really good memories, but I I don't know,
Speaker 4: like it was sports for me is what helped me
Speaker 4: process that and rowing and every time I had to
Speaker 4: process and understand, like what happened to me was a
Speaker 4: not okay. And I think it just one of those
Speaker 4: things that like a little bit of anchor is gonna
Speaker 4: always be there, but not to them specifically, just a
Speaker 4: little bit of like why do people have to do
Speaker 4: this to young kids, powerless kids without voices? And then
Speaker 4: when I released my memoir, I got an overflooding amount
Speaker 4: of messages from kids in Ukrainian orphanages, but orphanage in
Speaker 4: general like too that said, oh my gosh, I went
Speaker 4: through the exact same thing literally they and this was
Speaker 4: and they were just getting adopted or their new lives somehow.
Speaker 4: And this is just within like three four years. So
Speaker 4: that's the anger that I have more is that this
Speaker 4: is still happening. It hasn't changed.
Speaker 2: The abuse of young children in these institutionalized orphanages exactly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And you know, it's it is hard because I
Speaker 4: have I can be angry about my disability, about my hands,
Speaker 4: about my legs, but I think the hardest thing for
Speaker 4: me that I had to overcome was the scars on
Speaker 4: my body. That's not resulted from my disability. It's a
Speaker 4: scar that a story has been written for me. I
Speaker 4: never got to choose how I got it, where it
Speaker 4: was placed, or why. And that's that's when I think
Speaker 4: about the anger, like that's just what it has. But
Speaker 4: then like for me, the power of sport just really
Speaker 4: helped me process it. I had to heal physically with
Speaker 4: my new imputations and everything else, but it helped me
Speaker 4: heal mentally and emotionally in ways I had no idea
Speaker 4: that I truly needed. And it was a way like
Speaker 4: when you're a kid. I got into rowing when I
Speaker 4: was thirteen. A lot of my memories I was suppressing
Speaker 4: around sixteen to twenty, they were all flooding back. There's
Speaker 4: like that's so true, Like where you can only put
Speaker 4: a box and tie it up and you just get
Speaker 4: a bigger rubber band around it and put more tape
Speaker 4: on it. Eventually that box is gonna explode. It's a
Speaker 4: matter of time. It's not sustainable. And I had sport
Speaker 4: in my life when everything inside just exploded and went often.
Speaker 4: It gave me a path and a direction and a
Speaker 4: way to be able to express and scream. I always say,
Speaker 4: like a way to scream without needing to physically scream
Speaker 4: and process when I didn't have the words to explain
Speaker 4: and talk to someone of what I'm feeling. And I
Speaker 4: think in that way because sports became such a healing tool.
Speaker 4: Not I want to be an Olympian Paralympic athlete, I
Speaker 4: want to have a gold medal. It was it was
Speaker 4: my escape and I loved it so much and that
Speaker 4: became a secret weapon in a way. Now heading into
Speaker 4: my seventh Paralympic Games, is that love for sport not
Speaker 4: just that love for winning.
Speaker 2: That's incredible. Yes, sports, you're forced to be in the moment.
Speaker 2: How did you I'm curious just with with all of
Speaker 2: the just issues stacked against you physically, and then you
Speaker 2: said you had amputations. I believe you had both of
Speaker 2: your legs amputated. What made you think, I know, I'll
Speaker 2: get it to sports? How were you led in that direction?
Speaker 2: That would be a lot of people would think the
Speaker 2: last thing they thought they could do, But you did it.
Speaker 3: How did it happen?
Speaker 4: It was the last thing I thought I could do too. Actually,
Speaker 4: I had no idea that I could be an athlete.
Speaker 4: I was always active as a kid. I was always
Speaker 4: climbing on things, getting in trouble and just loved moving
Speaker 4: my body and so my legs. Literally I was missing
Speaker 4: the main weight bearing bone and I had double of
Speaker 4: the non weight bearing bone, but it looked like assault
Speaker 4: Shaker was when you look at the X ray of
Speaker 4: the bone. Assault Shaker was just sprinkled across. So the
Speaker 4: bone itself wasn't formed correctly at all. And I taught
Speaker 4: myself how to walk to be able to get around
Speaker 4: in the orphanage, to just survival instinct. But because I
Speaker 4: was so malnourished, it hurt, but it wasn't affecting me
Speaker 4: to the point where when I came to America and
Speaker 4: I grew about I think like eleven inches within the
Speaker 4: first two months, which is a lot just based on
Speaker 4: food alone, and the weight couldn't sustain that. So I
Speaker 4: had to have amputated above the knee, which in itself
Speaker 4: is very different than being a below the knee amputee.
Speaker 4: Like missing every joint you're missing, it just makes it
Speaker 4: that much harder. And so of course when I was
Speaker 4: nine and then fourteen, when I had my second leg amputated,
Speaker 4: I was thinking about, I'll never have my knee pop
Speaker 4: kiss now. And that's where, like you know, like most
Speaker 4: knees and stuff, you're just like the knee pops up
Speaker 4: and Anne Hathaway and Princess Diaries. I was never gonna
Speaker 4: have that moment to do that, like, yeah, well okay,
Speaker 4: now I just got to destruct from what your original
Speaker 4: question was based on.
Speaker 2: That, Well, it was based on after you know you're
Speaker 2: having amputations, and how do you then think I know
Speaker 2: I'll be an athlete?
Speaker 3: I mean, where does that come from?
Speaker 4: I think it's I did not think I was going
Speaker 4: to be an athlete. It was right before my second
Speaker 4: amputation I was rowing and I was introduced to rowing
Speaker 4: my mom and got me involved with ice skating when
Speaker 4: we lived in Buffalo, New York, and it was more
Speaker 4: so to learn the language, make some friends get stronger.
Speaker 4: And then when we moved to Kentucky, I tried rowing
Speaker 4: and that was my mom too. She's very persistent. We
Speaker 4: could not be more opposite. She's not athletic, she does
Speaker 4: not want to sweat. She's more a homebody who loves reading,
Speaker 4: which I'm starting to appreciate reading now. But I just
Speaker 4: wanted to be active. But she did say, just go
Speaker 4: out and try rowing. We don't ever have to go
Speaker 4: back there if you don't like it, and I did.
Speaker 4: It did take some persuasion from finding out there was
Speaker 4: a cute boy that was volunteering there in my middle school.
Speaker 4: So I was like, okay, I'll.
Speaker 1: Try it is always comes back to some cute boy.
Speaker 4: But then when I was in that hospital, have it
Speaker 4: gone through my second reputation. It was that moment where
Speaker 4: they amputated. They promised to amputate below the knee, they
Speaker 4: ended up amputating above the knee, and so when I
Speaker 4: woke up and I saw both of my legs gone
Speaker 4: above the knee. It was also a last minute decision.
Speaker 4: They didn't leave enough skin to close up the incision,
Speaker 4: so it resulted in addition to the epidural shifting and
Speaker 4: numbing the wrong leg as well. It resulted in six
Speaker 4: months day, followed by more months after that. And it
Speaker 4: was that moment with the first time I had to
Speaker 4: be still in my life, and I remember just looking
Speaker 4: at the tree and just like I want to be
Speaker 4: I never want to be in this moment again. I
Speaker 4: want to move. The minute I can get out of here,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna move. And I thought about rowing getting back
Speaker 4: on that water and that's the only thing I really
Speaker 4: thought about to get me through that. But I wasn't
Speaker 4: thinking about it to be an athlete at that point,
Speaker 4: like I just wanted to row. I just wanted to
Speaker 4: be outside and feel that breeze I face and to
Speaker 4: not ever be still in a bed. And I think
Speaker 4: that moment of being an athlete kind of came when
Speaker 4: not making the Paralympic team in two thousand and eight
Speaker 4: and making the choice to go and try and make
Speaker 4: it for London in rowing twenty twelve, moving away from
Speaker 4: home and spending that whole winter on my own training
Speaker 4: with my growing partner, Rob Jones. That's where I think
Speaker 4: I want to be an athlete and represent Team USA
Speaker 4: and do it for something so much bigger than just
Speaker 4: the love of my rowing sport.
Speaker 1: Can you help folks for a second, we think about
Speaker 1: paralympians or people who are disabled have differently able to
Speaker 1: how or folks often want to say it, and they
Speaker 1: often lead with that, like that's the first thing that
Speaker 1: they want to ask about, or they sometimes see or
Speaker 1: oftentimes it feels like that's the thing that will define
Speaker 1: someone who has that is differently abled. But it was
Speaker 1: cool on your website, the about you page, the first
Speaker 1: thing you say about yourself, I'm a coffee drinker, animal lover,
Speaker 1: and world traveler. And so when we started this podcast
Speaker 1: with you at the top, people didn't We didn't even
Speaker 1: get into the fact that you have you were born
Speaker 1: with this defect or that, and how does that and
Speaker 1: how do how are you an ambassador in that way
Speaker 1: or how or what advice even would you give to
Speaker 1: people who might come in contact or get up face
Speaker 1: to face with you and they don't know what to
Speaker 1: say or what to ask about or how to treat you.
Speaker 1: That kind of a thing. I think that's always still
Speaker 1: that thing for some people that are uncomfortable and don't
Speaker 1: know how to how to handle the moment.
Speaker 4: That's one hundred percent true. Like I think when we
Speaker 4: when I see people like literally staring so hard, but
Speaker 4: they don't want to turn their head to stairs, so
Speaker 4: they're just choosing to be They think they're so subled
Speaker 4: by staring their eyeballs to the point they're about to
Speaker 4: pop out. Guess what, guys, I can still notice that.
Speaker 4: It's okay, just go on and look. I would look too.
Speaker 4: If somebody with bionic legs is walking by, and I
Speaker 4: don't see that every single day. I'd be like going
Speaker 4: on here, like don't try and hide it and act
Speaker 4: like you don't see that. Like it's okay to be curious. Also,
Speaker 4: it's okay for kids to be curious and ask questions.
Speaker 4: And you know, I'm too. In the bathroom and this
Speaker 4: little girl, gosh, she's just so cute and she was
Speaker 4: so curious and she had to be like four or five,
Speaker 4: and she's like, what's wrong with their legs? And she's
Speaker 4: just screaming and the mom's just feeling mortified and she's like,
Speaker 4: just stop. She don't say anything, does anything, and that's
Speaker 4: all that's wrong. She's like, but why, but because and
Speaker 4: she kept saying, but why, what's wrong with her? Like
Speaker 4: what's where are her legs? And I've had two, I've
Speaker 4: had her parents where there like these aren't cool?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 4: I bet she can run really fast or this this
Speaker 4: allows her to walk probably better. I'm sure we can ask.
Speaker 4: That is a great way to like, hey, would you mind,
Speaker 4: And it's okay to do that. Every person's going to
Speaker 4: be different. I'm very open to it. I would not
Speaker 4: be showing my legs and I'm at the point now
Speaker 4: where I do show my legs I didn't always. It's
Speaker 4: okay to ask questions, and for those young kids, allow
Speaker 4: them to be curious because they're just so genuinely authentically
Speaker 4: wondering what is this. They're probably think like when they
Speaker 4: see me in my sit ski or my hand cycle,
Speaker 4: they're like, oh my god, that was like a rocket.
Speaker 4: They just see like they're so pure and curious and
Speaker 4: genuine and just genuine for individuals. Though, what it is
Speaker 4: so hard is when I'm at a gas station getting
Speaker 4: gas or buying toothpaste and dioda and those things that
Speaker 4: no one likes to buy, but we have to those
Speaker 4: little small things like I don't want to hear I'm
Speaker 4: inspiring for those reasons because I'm choosing to be out
Speaker 4: there living my life, getting gas, buying toilet paper, like
Speaker 4: because my also, my fiance is a paralympic athlete, and
Speaker 4: you guys can only imagine the kind of looks we
Speaker 4: get or the kind of crazy thoughts people get when
Speaker 4: they see my fiance who's in a wheelchair and a
Speaker 4: girl with no legs walking together and he's holding the
Speaker 4: door for me and I'm walking and we're going to
Speaker 4: date night for dinner and then this person looks back
Speaker 4: and like, oh, good for you, that is so sweet.
Speaker 4: Good for you guys for being out. And then Aaron's like,
Speaker 4: oaksanna leave it, leave it because well that was a fuse.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you've guys seen the inside out
Speaker 4: the movie, and it's like the angry one. I'm that
Speaker 4: angry one, and all all of my emotions are just
Speaker 4: pure anger when it comes to comments.
Speaker 3: Like that, because it's past, it's patronizing, it.
Speaker 4: Is yeah, and I was like, well as opposed to what,
Speaker 4: like why should I stop? And I get there are
Speaker 4: some people that for them it's hard. Everyone has a
Speaker 4: journey that's going to be their timeline to get to
Speaker 4: where I am now being okay walking out and being seen.
Speaker 4: But it's look at me as a human first, don't
Speaker 4: look at me and think, oh, there's a girl's no legs. First.
Speaker 4: I love coffee, I am planning a wedding, I love sports.
Speaker 4: I don't like the cycling tainlines at all. Like I
Speaker 4: like just all these like I'm so normal and because
Speaker 4: I have, my physical appearance is so different. It's not
Speaker 4: any different from someone if you have curly hair, straight hair, blonde,
Speaker 4: hair brown, hair, gray, whatever, skin color, language you are glasses,
Speaker 4: Like why these prosthetics and wheelchairs and canes have to
Speaker 4: all of a sudden be that, Oh my gosh, that's
Speaker 4: two different kind of thing, And like, I think it's
Speaker 4: going to be different for everyone. I think learn how
Speaker 4: like people can like read the situation, see how the
Speaker 4: vibe that individual athlete with a disability has. Maybe, but
Speaker 4: it's okay to ask questions, genuine questions, but do not
Speaker 4: automatically assume I'm in the military and come up to
Speaker 4: me and thank me for my service.
Speaker 5: Oh people do that probably a cringe moment because and
Speaker 5: do you know what they do afterwards or like, oh,
Speaker 5: thank you for your service or in the military, and
Speaker 5: I say no, and they're like, oh okay, I walk
Speaker 5: away and I've literally screamed out, but I still have
Speaker 5: no legs, Like dude, Like, I.
Speaker 3: Mean, that's bizarre. Wow, I mean I can't even imagine
Speaker 3: the stories you have.
Speaker 1: But that's a good point to human being first. If
Speaker 1: you lead with this is a human being first, and
Speaker 1: everything else will come. So Yeah, I just liked how
Speaker 1: you put that on your page. I'm a coffee drink,
Speaker 1: I'm a world trip. You mentioned all these other things,
Speaker 1: and yes you you're also a paralympian. That's just a
Speaker 1: part of.
Speaker 3: The so happens to have seventeen medals.
Speaker 4: That's so crazy. So I forgot that because all Winter Games.
Speaker 4: But yeah, like I think it's the more normal. The
Speaker 4: more society shows and includes people in wheelchairs and prosthetics
Speaker 4: and shows the Paralympics alongside to the Olympics, it's going
Speaker 4: to become more normal. We're going to start seeing it
Speaker 4: more and more and more. And it's so important for
Speaker 4: the next generation of young kids for it for them
Speaker 4: to see all walks of life be represented and seen
Speaker 4: in the same light as a successful businessman, athletes, all
Speaker 4: these different areas, so it becomes more normal for them.
Speaker 4: It's going to be a generation change and we start
Speaker 4: by now.
Speaker 2: That's amazing, and you're one of the main ambassadors. It's
Speaker 2: so cool to see what you do and just reading
Speaker 2: up on you and it's just you are remarkable in
Speaker 2: all that you do. When you are inspiring the next
Speaker 2: generation in every way, tell us what you're gonna do
Speaker 2: in Paris? What are you bringing home with you? What
Speaker 2: are your goals? If you look up like the top
Speaker 2: ten athletes to notice. Ort of look at you're on
Speaker 2: the list for your events. So what do you think
Speaker 2: you're gonna do? You're gonna bring home more metal?
Speaker 4: Uh, that's the goal. That is the goal. I hope
Speaker 4: I can bring back to very shiny yellow esque gold medals,
Speaker 4: golden squ metals. If not, I just want like a
Speaker 4: metal I would be so proud. I think, you know,
Speaker 4: even those is my seventh Paralympic Games. The one thing
Speaker 4: I never really had going into the other ones is
Speaker 4: being so proud of myself and feeling like I truly
Speaker 4: belong and deserve being on that start line, and having
Speaker 4: the guts to just race with like, just fearlessly, just
Speaker 4: believe in your training and just make those attacks be
Speaker 4: that one to push the pace, push your be uncomfortable,
Speaker 4: to make everyone else be uncomfortable. But also, like I do,
Speaker 4: I do want those medals because I made a promise
Speaker 4: to myself if I can, especially and because shanellebag's got
Speaker 4: so expensive now it's just to a gold medal. If
Speaker 4: I get a gold medal, I'm gonna buy my first
Speaker 4: Shanelle bag because you can only buy it from there.
Speaker 3: I love that. That's awesome. That is awesome. That's that's
Speaker 3: very incentivizing on Sonday.
Speaker 1: It is such a pleasure to talk to you. We
Speaker 1: were very excited to do so. We've been reading up
Speaker 1: on you for the past week or so, so we uh,
Speaker 1: we were excited, and you have exceeded all expectations. You
Speaker 1: are an absolute hoot and just as normal as anything.
Speaker 1: Like you said, folks, it's okay, she's a human being first,
Speaker 1: but I.
Speaker 4: Think I'm just over caffeinated as all.
Speaker 1: Oh, when's the wedding? By the way, that's a good question.
Speaker 4: Ask Aaron that it took him You guys, don't let
Speaker 4: ever do it to your partners. But it took him
Speaker 4: eight years and three months.
Speaker 3: To proposed days eight years three months.
Speaker 4: And it was three weeks and I think it was
Speaker 4: like around like six days five days. As this is Aaron. No,
Speaker 4: he's not my fiance and my boyfriend. Still we've been
Speaker 4: dating for eight years and three months.
Speaker 3: That's amazing. I love that.
Speaker 1: But you saw the racer, the runner in the Olympics.
Speaker 1: She she finished the race, she got fourth, but she
Speaker 1: went over to the stands and proposed.
Speaker 3: Herself after nine years of data.
Speaker 1: It was nine years, so Hey, give it. Don't be
Speaker 1: so hard on Erin. Don't don't you do back him
Speaker 1: just saying it could have been worse.
Speaker 4: It is all we were dating for for that, but
Speaker 4: we were together and I've known him more than that.
Speaker 1: Well, good luck, give him our best and at least
Speaker 1: tell him I'm rooting for him. But let congratulations. We
Speaker 1: will be watching you for sure in Paris. It's an
Speaker 1: absolute pleasure talking to you and good luck and we
Speaker 1: absolutely want to talk to you down the road.
Speaker 4: All right, Thank you guys so much.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Exana, have a wonderful day you too.
Speaker 1: Then, folks, you know where to find us as always
Speaker 1: on our official Instagram page at Amy and TJ Podcast