Peak Vista Community Health Centers announced its featured headliner for the 2026 Breakfast of Champions fundraiser at a July 30 reception held at the United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum. Walking out into the museum to a standing ovation was Oksana Masters, the top-decorated U.S. Paralympian of all time, who has participated in eight Paralympic Winter Games.
The signature fundraising morning is scheduled for Oct. 15, and donors, community advocates, and members of the organization's boards were invited to be among the first to learn which athlete would headline the Broadmoor Hall event. The July 30 gathering marked the first time a current Olympic medal winner has been featured in the event's history.
Masters is a double amputee who specializes in cross-country skiing and biathlon, along with cycling, rowing, and Nordic skiing. She has published a book, "The Hard Parts: A Story of Courage and Triumph," and was the first Para athlete nominated for an ESPY Best Athlete, Women's Sports award.
Masters was adopted as an emaciated 8-year-old from an orphanage in Ukraine by a single American mother. Because the orphanage was located in the Chernobyl area, birth defects forced the amputation of both legs at the knees, and webbed fingers were later corrected with surgery. Masters credited her mother as a driving force, noting that one of her biggest personal barriers was not believing in herself, and that a coach in Louisville, Kentucky, recognized her potential as a teenager and introduced her to Paralympic sports.
During her visit to the museum, Masters hand-delivered her memorabilia and uniform from the Milano/Cortina Games for a new exhibit being prepared by curator Lindsay Huban, with the items to remain on loan there for one year.
The partnership between Olympic athletes and Peak Vista began as a fundraising and community awareness idea by Bill Hybl, a former president of the United States Olympic Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee, and Lynn Pelz, longtime Peak Vista director of communications. The athletes chosen for the event share personal stories about the need for medical support before fame arrived, highlighting the vital role that health centers like Peak Vista play — an organization that serves more than 74,000 clients.
Peak Vista traces its roots to 1971, when it operated as the Colorado Springs Free Clinic, a walk-in service open two nights a week with volunteer staff, before becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity in 1972. The first Breakfast of Champions headliner, in 2005, was gymnast Mary Lou Retton.
Tickets for the October breakfast are available at peakvista.org/BOC. Details on additional programming and guest speakers for the Oct. 15 event have not yet been announced.