I can go days without eating if I don't think about food. Your mind, to protect itself, learns not to pay attention to that hunger feeling.
I usually like to keep my hair and makeup routines pretty simple after I work out but always need a little bit of mascara to finish off the look. I just swipe some on and then am good to go for the rest of the day.
Just keep moving forward.
When you're using your upper body to live, you get to know how to move every muscle.
Sports were a way for me to get comfortable with my body. I learned to appreciate everything I could still do.
I was a troublemaker.
I'm a coffee lover.
I wear my prosthetics legs every day, and when I train in the gym, I call them my Lamborghini, because both legs and sockets, which extend up to my hips to keep the legs on via a suction seal, cost about $305,815.
I was supposed to be adopted when I was five, but then my adoption was pushed back by two years.
Sport has definitely been an outlet for me.
My mom literally saved my life. I wasn't supposed to make it out of the orphanage.
When I ski, I take both of my legs off and get into a sit ski: a ski with a custom seat that has been molded for me. I use my core and arms to propel myself on snow with help from ski poles.
The biggest challenge during competition is keeping my real legs warm with clothing, because I have poor circulation in the tissue around the amputated areas.
It's extremely important for my sit ski to be perfectly fit to me. If it's too big, and I shift around, the energy and strength I put into propelling myself forward will be lost. The right fit is everything in my sport.
I definitely went through a period where I don't want to say I hated myself, but I hated what I saw in the mirror. I would try to cover it up, and it wasn't until I started doing sports - until after London 2012 - that I kind of started getting more of that confidence in my body and appreciating my body.
With cycling, I can still be active and compete, and ultimately, that's what I love to do, to be competitive.
Time trialing is one of those things that you've got to train for... Being a new rider, it's still really hard for me to know what's the most efficient gear for me to be in. The road race is probably more exciting, in my opinion, because it's a lot faster pace, and people are constantly attacking.
I started doing sports when I was 13 and competitively doing sports - where I was actually training - when I was 17.
I never thought I'd be able to go back to Ukraine.
I am so happy I have been able to channel all the things that I went through when I was younger and make them into something positive.
