For Oksana Masters and Aaron Pike, U.S. Paralympic energy couple, 2026 Games are full circle

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — They didn’t speak about it, however they each knew.

Back on the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia, each Oksana Masters and Aaron Pike made a degree to get away from their U.S. teammates so they may have a second alone collectively. Headed towards a gondola to their subsequent vacation spot, that meant a really quick tempo for Masters, who was on the identical web page as Pike.

“He’s on wheels, so he has no idea how hard I have to work to keep up with him,” Masters mentioned. “I did my best speed walk to try and catch that gondola so it would just be me and him.”

Luckily, each are fairly dang quick.

“It was just like a moment on the gondola and just like this pure hug of just being together in this moment, at that time not knowing where our future was going to be,” mentioned Masters, now 36.

Having each competed within the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, the pair met for the primary time in 2013 in Utah as they each tried out para Nordic snowboarding, bonding over sport and a shared love of espresso — Pike’s French press sparked a dialog. But it was on the Sochi Games the place they discovered a quiet second collectively, and the connection took a extra severe flip. When it got here time to depart and so they had been set to move to the airport, they ended up turning into a pair.

“I think that’s when we both kind of realized that it was something more than just friends,” mentioned the 39-year-old Pike.

Since then, together with the 2012 Games, each are eight-time Paralympians. Pike competes in cross-country and biathlon within the winter, and wheelchair racing in the summertime. Masters is without doubt one of the most distinguished Paralympians due to her sheer domination, alongside together with her backstory. In addition to 5 complete Summer Paralympic medals, in biking and rowing, she’s turn into essentially the most embellished U.S. Winter Paralympian, competing in cross-country and biathlon.

That title has solely been additional bolstered by these Games, with Masters selecting up three gold medals in 4 occasions to date to convey her tally to 22 Paralympic medals (12 gold) throughout the Summer and Winter Games.

Aaron Pike and Oksana Masters, companions since after the 2012 London Games, are each eight-time Paralympians, competing in summer time and winter sports activities. (Alex Grimm / Getty Images)

But even for an athlete as dominant as Masters, these most up-to-date medals weren’t a certainty. A couple of days forward of the Games, Masters revealed that the identical an infection that knocked her out of final 12 months’s winter season had come again in her leg. On prime of the an infection, Masters additionally suffered a concussion. It meant scaling again on coaching within the lead-up to the Games.

“My mother’s like, ‘This is your MO. If you had a smooth sail into the Games, (I) would be worried.’” Masters said. “This is all I know.”

Combine that with the constant back-and-forth of sport seasons, and it can be a lot. But Masters says she knows how to compartmentalize the nerves and anxiety. Once she hears the beeping in the countdown, she can “just block out and just let (her) body go on autopilot mode.”

Despite the most recent setbacks, Masters won Team USA’s first gold medal of the Games, claiming her sixth Winter Paralympic title within the girls’s dash sitting occasion in para biathlon. Post-victory, Masters mentioned, “I did not expect a podium finish, to be honest, let alone a gold.”

Oksana Masters and Aaron Pike plan to get married after the Paralympics. “This is the perfect way for us to (go back) where it all started,” Masters says. (Michael Steele / Getty Images)

At her subsequent occasion, Masters completed fourth. So did Pike in his second occasion. Both had missed a shot of their biathlon races.

“I was like, ‘Aaron, like, we don’t need to be twins like this. I don’t want you to copy all that.’”

But Pike knew she had a tough race, so he made her a espresso and hugged her.

“Just those things that aren’t necessarily words and (are) just small little actions of love and makes me smile … so happy to be on this journey with him,” Masters mentioned.

Pike loves the little rituals too, like waking up in the entire completely different locations they journey to collectively. And naturally, it circles again to their favourite beverage, with Pike saying, “Those slow mornings where nothing’s even said, you’re just hanging out having coffee. That says that stuff’s great.”

And after all, they’re there supporting one another on the subject of the competitors. Even in her continued dominance in these Games, Masters is most excited for Pike. She admires Pike’s capability to shake the dangerous races off and pivot to the subsequent. And her final gold medal in these Games could be watching Pike win his first one: “That’s my biggest dream of those Games,” she mentioned.

Post-Games, the 2 plan to rejoice regardless.

In summer time 2022, Pike went again to that first gondola experience, proposing on a experience up the Tetons mountain vary in Wyoming. One quad later, the pair will rejoice the subsequent step of their lives collectively. After a while at dwelling, and re-packing with out the worry of a marriage costume being misplaced amid the near 20-plus suitcases alongside for the Paralympic experience, the couple will marry later this spring in Italy.

“Our journey started because of snow,” Masters mentioned. “We met in the mountains, and this is the perfect way for us to (go back) where it all started for us and continue our next, new chapters of our lives together.”