149: Winter Vinecki Is 15-Years-Old. It’s Close To Impossible To Fathom All Of What She Has Accomplished Around The World. But For Her, It’s Only The Beginning

Who Are You: The Life Lessons of Sports

Winter Vinecki’s father was diagnosed with prostate cancer when she was 9 years old. He passed away 10 months later, just before his 41st birthday. Competing since Age 5, Winter aspires to be a summer and winter Olympian In memory of her dad.

Winter and her mother Dawn Estelle join us for this powerful mother-daughter Podcast interview. An interview about a family of champions born from two loving parents who valued free play, hard work and grit!

Winter Lee Vinecki “Winter” Winter was born on December 18, 1998 in Grand Rapids Michigan. She grew up in Gaylord Michigan and Salem, Oregon and now trains in Park City, Utah. After losing her Dad at the age of 9 to an aggressive form of prostate cancer, she formed www.teamwinter.org a 501 (c) (3) non-profit to raise money for prostate cancer research & awareness. She’s raised over $400,000 toward that effort and counting. Winter began racing Triathlons at the age of 5 and completed her first Olympic triathlons at 9! She went on to become the national Ironkids champ for 2010 & 2011 and finished her third year as the official ambassador of the sport. She was the 2011 recipient of the Annika Inspiration Award. At that event she met Aerial’s Olympian Emily Cook who convinced her to try out for the Fly Elite Freestyle Aerials team in Park City.

After a weeklong camp, Fly Elite decided to sponsor Winter as a 2018 Olympic hopeful in Aerials Freestyle. This was a significant change in Winter and her family’s lives because joining this team requires Winter to live in Park City Utah with a host family for the foreseeable future. Winter’s Mom, Dawn and 3 brothers live in Oregon and they are able to visit as often as possible at races across the country and brief periods of downtime between training sessions. Winter, now 14 years old is planning to race in dozens of events throughout 2013, she’ll be focused on freestyle aerials throughout the Winter as well as completing her world record marathon attempt by the end of the year. She recently set a new world record as the youngest person to ever complete a marathon on Antarctica. She’ll also be racing in multiple running triathlons including the Xterra series.

For Winter, it’s not about the attention. It’s about bringing vindication to her dad, who was given a death sentence in the form of prostate cancer; a disease in which one in six men will be afflicted with. She strives every day, sacrificing playtime and other luxuries kids her age take for granted to ensure that she is doing all she can to bring an end to this tragic and all-too-common disease.