February 20, 2017 (Finsterau, Germany)  – Capping off her remarkable run this week, Oksana Masters was crowned world champion for a fourth time at the 2017 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships with a dominate performance in the women’s sitting middle-distance cross-country race.

Masters made history in Finsterau, leaving as the most successful U.S. woman at a world championship since International Paralympic Committee records were maintained in the sport.

Final podium © USOC

“Hearing quadruple champion is just really crazy. I’m honestly speechless; I don’t know what to say because it’s just something I never thought would happen. In the past, I’ve always been that second or third-best person so it feels pretty great to take four world championship titles for the U.S. Paralympic Nordic Skiing Program and also for Team USA,” said Masters.

The three-time Paralympian in cycling, Nordic skiing and rowing executed perfectly on the 10-kilometer course, pacing the field with only a one second difference between her first two laps to finish 15 seconds ahead of Germany’s defending world and Paralympic champion Andrea Eskau with a time of 14:15.5. With the win, Masters swept cross-country events in Finsterau and took home her fifth medal at world championships, including her first world title won exactly one week ago.

Andy Soule (Pearland, Texas) fought his way onto the podium with a bronze-medal win in the men’s sitting race, defeating Korea’s Eui Hyun Sin by just over a second. His teammate Aaron Pike (Park Rapids, Minnesota) finished eighth in the race. Soule, a U.S. Army veteran, picked up his second medal of the world championships after winning silver on the first day of competition in cross-country sprint.

“That was an incredible week for our team; they continued to fight every day and learn how to improve in the technical parts of the course and continue to figure out how to master the sport of cross-country skiing and especially biathlon. This was a great effort for them and a great team effort for us all the way around,” said John Farra, High Performance Director, U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing.

Full results and highlight videos here.