Masters preparing for ‘amazing experience’ at Cable 2015

“Maybe push my comfort boundaries - go into turns with a little more speed, be more aggressive and learn more of the tactics of the sport and try and maintain what I did last year.”

Sochi 2014 medallist Oksana Masters has spoken of her excitement ahead of returning to Cable, Wisconsin, USA, for the 2015 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships, where she first competed in 2013.

“Cable was my first five days on snow ever, so it’s going to be really exciting,” Masters said. “I’m so excited to see, just in terms of my own personal growth, where I am now.”

Masters raced at the Telemark Resort, the venue for Cable 2015, just one year before competing at the last Paralympic Winter Games. In Sochi she incredibly won silver in the 12km cross-country sitting and bronze in the 5km sitting.

This season Masters has been improving and picked up three podiums, including a win in the cross-country sprint, at the season opening World Cup in Vuokatti, Finland, in December 2014.

But the 25-year-old remains tight-lipped about what she thinks she can achieve at Cable 2015.

“My aims are kind of the same of last year – to be a student of the sport,” she said. “I’m not a high-level athlete in this particular sport yet so I’m just going to soak up as much as I can.

“Maybe push my comfort boundaries - go into turns with a little more speed, be more aggressive and learn more of the tactics of the sport and try and maintain what I did last year.”

Masters will face some very tough, and experienced, competition at Cable 2015. The aim for the London 2012 rowing medallist is not to beat everyone immediately, but catch them over the coming years.

Revealing long-term plans to compete at the highest level in Nordic skiing, Masters said “I know that Mariann [Marthnisen, Norway] is one of the top athletes and Andrea [Eskau, Germany], Svetlana [Konovolova, Russia] in the biathlon.

“I definitely aspire to be closer to their competition but I don’t say I’m going to beat them this year because they have put in so much time and I am just two years into the sport. They are definitely on my radar to hopefully as the years go on, to beat them.”

For now, Masters is content to absorb the atmosphere that a home Championships brings and hopes that spectators will turn-out to see her and teammates, including rival Tatyana McFadden, race.

“I definitely believe that the whole of the US team, with the strength and training coaches and the waxing guys, will set us up to be the best that we can be at the time,” she said.

“It’s going to be an amazing experience competing in front of home crowds. I’m gonna soak it in but I’m not going to put the extra pressure on myself. But having the home support and the extra comfort of knowing the foods and the language and the culture, it’s definitely going to make it easier.”

Masters will compete alongside around 150 athletes from 15 countries at Cable 2015, including eight other athletes from Team USA.

Live results will be available at the event website and news, live updates and pictures will be available on the IPC’s Flickr account, and on IPC Nordic Skiing’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.