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(Biathlon combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.)
Pat Martin
That transition is not smooth, not cute, and not pretty, Masters tells SELF.
Its as if you never worked out in your entire life.
So, Masters took a day off to soak in her wins.
Pat Martin
Then, she got back to training.
Im not going to lie, a lot of tears went into it, she says.
If she finished the race, shed be guaranteed a spot on Team USA in Tokyo.
Pat Martin
Competing with intense pain, she crashed.
She didnt finish the race.
After that massive roller coaster of emotions was when I heard I was going to Tokyo, she says.
So many of Masterss stories go like this: extreme lows followed by extreme highs.
I dont know if its because Im a Gemini, she says, laughing.
But shes adamant that her comebacks from those lows dont make her superhuman.
SELF:Im excited to chat about your road to Beijing.
Just weeks out from Tokyo, you had some major health setbacks.
Tell me what was going through your head at that time.
My surgery date was 100 days to Tokyo.
And I was like, There goes everything.
It changed my whole outlook going into Tokyo.
Instead of chasing goals, I just wanted to chase that start line.
I should probably never admit this, but I was terrified of our qualifying course.
I was in tears.
I was doing some intervals crying, like, I cant do this.
I am not fit for this.
This is a challenging course.
And then, it went a million times better than could have been expected.
Tell me about that process.
But at the same time, Im at high-risk to get overuse injuries.
Cycling is all pushing, so its all shoulders, chest, and biceps.
You would think, right?
Im freaking out because I got so lucky.
I still dont understand what happened.
Its hard to hear that.
I dont truly believe in myself sometimes.
I doubt myself sometimes.
Thats a lot of pressure.
And the Beijing course is not going to be my style.
Its really flat and not technical.
I cant look for a hill to find speedthat would be my bread and butter.
The pressure definitely makes it harder to balance and find the joy in it sometimes.
How has this whole journey been for you mentally over the past couple of years?
I have an incredible support system.
I lean on my mom, and my boyfriend, Aaron, is also on the team here.
Hell come over and give me a hug.
Hes just got these magic arms.
Hes my secret weapon.
And I know I have him, regardless of the results.
But at the same time, its also hard because he has bad days and good days too.
Hes also competing in two seasons and dealing with a lot of the same stuff.
I have to verify my eggs are better than his.
I have a high standard on everything, including my over easy eggs.
Theres such an expectation put on athletes to be superhuman.
Do you feel like thats even more true for Paralympians?
That is the most frustrating thing on earth.
Its like: orphan girl, no legs, skier.
It pisses me off to the core because, excuse me, Im not orphaned anymore.
I have an amazing family.
Stop using that as a line.
And my legs are what created the opportunity for me to be an athlete.
Im not missing legs.
Weve turned into inspiration porn in some ways.
Some are just more physical and obvious.
Related to this: Youve written a book, which is exciting.
That quote changed my life because Im,physically, a very different person.
I cant hide my legs.
I cannot hide my hands.
Or Oh, my God, I cant believe that this happened.
But just to find strength with their own hard parts.
Whats your North Star?
Whats keeping you motivated in those hard parts?
Oh, my gosh.
Thats a big question, I know.
My mom is my North Star always.
She fought for me.
She gave up so much for me.
Financially, she supported my athletic career for the longest time.
The start line for me is my way of speaking without necessarily having to be heard out loud.
Its my body letting me speak in a way that you could only do through a race.
I thrive off of that feeling.
So, yeah, it makes no sense.
I think it does.
Its literally putting yourself out there in front of the world.
Hopefully, its getting better, where Paralympians are being more visible.
So, Im going to have that one day?
Thats what my legs are gonna look like?
Look how cool she is.
Seeing and hearing is believing; you dont necessarily have to scream everything to the world.
I think it was about 2008 when I first heard about the Paralympics.
Im like, What the heck is that?
I had to Google it.
Id watched the Olympics, but Id never seen someone like myself.
Im like, This is incredible.
And now, instead of just having two Paralympians, there are so many Paralympians who are dominant.
Thats what its all about.
The coolest thing about coming home from Tokyo was people asking, Were you in the Paralympics?
Did you compete in Tokyo?
Theyre sayingParalympics.They’re not sayingPara-Olympics,which is my pet peeve, or theOlympics, or theSpecial Olympics.
Theyre starting to recognize what the Paralympics are.
But theres such a long way to go.
Some of the athletes that we have on this team now are 16, 18 years old.
Theyre going to have this incredible opportunity and this authentically Olympic experience.
But I say Olympic because people look at the Olympics as this bar thats set.
They dont understand the sweat equity that goes into it.
It feels like theres real progress that has been made.
The change needs to happen more so on the Winter side.
Thats something that I felt because I never had a gold medal in the Summer Games.
But all of a sudden, it was this huge thing.
Winter athletes need to be respected and celebrated just as much.
The Winter Games are more exotic.
The spice of the nature of the sportstheyre just so dangerous and incredible.
It sounds like you have more Paralympic cycles in you.
One of my motivations is the fact that the [Summer] Games are coming to L.A. in 2028.
My dream would be if Utah gets the bid [for the Winter Games].
It would be so cool.
But I definitely want to compete in L.A. Its going to be iconic.
Interview has been edited and condensed.Meet all of SELFs 2022 Olympic and Paralympic cover stars here.
