Beijing Olympic skier holds record for youngest person to run a marathon on every continent

Most sports fans will recognize Winter Vinecki for representing the United States in the aerials skiing competition in Beijing, but long before she made her Olympic debut, she was a runner. Vinecki began running races when she was just five years old, and as a teenager, she became the youngest person to run a marathon on every continent.

According to usskiandsnowboard.org, Vinecki ran her first 5K when she was five, her first 10K when she was eight and her first 10-miler (16K) when she was only 10. The now-23-year-old from Michigan also competed in triathlons as a kid and has several medals to prove it.

Showing obvious athletic ability from a young age, Vinecki’s purpose behind her athletic pursuits took on a new meaning when she was only nine and her father was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. From that moment, she began competing (often alongside her mother, Dawn Estelle) to raise awareness about the disease. Sadly, her father passed away less than a year after his diagnosis. A year after losing her father in 2010, Vinecki won her first IronKids National Triathlon, which she would go on to win for the second time in 2011.

Shortly after her second win, she found out the record for the youngest person to complete a marathon on all seven continents was held by a 27-year-old man, and decided she could easily beat that. Her mother agreed, and at 13, Vinecki got to work. Starting with the Eugene Marathon in Oregon, the Amazing Maasai Marathon in Kenya and the Antarctica Marathon, by the age of 14 she had already checked the first three off her list. Her fourth marathon was the Inca Trail Marathon, considered the toughest marathon in the world, thanks to its steep mountain passes, which the teen ended up winning in nine hours and 18 minutes.

She went on to complete a marathon in Mongolia, New Zealand and finally Athens to complete her trip around the globe. The 14-year-old, who had already qualified for the Junior Freestyle Skiing World Championships but given up her spot to complete her marathon challenge, then returned to the slopes with her eyes on qualifying for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. An ACL tear prevented her from competing that year, so her Olympic debut was put off until 2022 in Beijing.

In her first Olympics, Vinecki ended up finishing 13th in her qualifying round and did not make it into the final, but with so much grit and determination, we will no doubt see her on the slopes again.

posted Saturday February 19th
by Running Magazine