Though the sample size is small this season, Kara Winger has reason to be excited for the Olympic Trials.
In past years, the Skyview High School graduate would have spent the track and field season throwing the javelin in world class events around the globe.
This year, the setting for her season debut last Saturday was a bit more humble.
Instead of stadium grandstands, the backdrop was the sun-browned grass and cottonwood trees near Concordia University in Portland.
Instead of prize money, a post-meet barbecue was a major draw for athletes at the Ironwood TC Throws Classic.
But that didn’t stop Winger from delivering a world-class performance. Her best throw of 202 feet, 6 inches was the second farthest by any American this year.
That has Winger hopeful she’ll qualify for her third Olympics at the trials, which run Friday through July 10 in Eugene, Ore.
Winger’s javelin event is July 9 with the top three finishers qualifying for the Rio Games, which begin Aug. 5.
After a 2015 season that saw her win a sixth national title, take silver at the Pan-Am Games and finish eighth at the World Championships, Winger took a different approach to this season.
It wasn’t necessarily by choice. She had surgery on her left non-throwing shoulder in the fall. The recovery took longer than expected.
“I knew that if I only threw at the trials and Olympics, I would be OK,” Winger said. “I’m feeling a little bit behind. But there’s still time to turn things around.”
While her body healed during the winter, Winger stayed busy away from the track at her home in Colorado Springs, Colo. She just completed the three-year process of earning her Masters degree in business administration.
“It was an exercise of the mind,” she said. “In a way, it was a good distraction.”
But now, Winger’s focus is solely on making the Olympics, where she hopes to finally compete at her full potential.
Four years ago in London, she competed despite having a torn ACL in her left knee and didn’t reach the finals.
She reached her first Olympics, the 2008 Beijing Games, while still in college at Purdue and finished 41st.
Winger, 30, is not ready to say this Olympics would be her last. But she knows the Olympic Trials will be an intense experience based not only on how she fares, but how her friends and family do. Her husband, Russ, is hoping to reach his first Olympics in the discus.
“It’s a very emotional experience because of the pressure involved,” she said. “In sports, often we’re more emotionally invested in others than ourselves.”
If she qualifies for Rio, Winger isn’t worried about the Zika virus, which a handful of athletes have cited as reason they won’t attend.
Winger said there are worries at every Olympics. She remembers being told which high-crime areas in Beijing to avoid and to use caution when wearing Team USA gear.
“Our job is to compete and the (United States Olympic Committee’s) job is to look after us,” she said. “I fully trust in the USOC to do that.”
The other shadow hanging over track and field is doping, which has led to Russian athletes being banned from the Rio Games.
Winger said she isn’t frustrated that doping has hogged the spotlight ahead of the Olympics.
“I think it’s good that something gets done and that action is being taken to get cheaters out of our sport,” she said.
Camas runner Alexa Efraimson will compete in the 1,500 meters at the Olympic Trials.
The national Junior record holder in the 1,500, Efraimson won her second U.S. junior title in that event last weekend.
The University of Portland freshman, who runs professionally for Nike, has a personal best of 4 minutes, 3.39 seconds set in May 2015 at the Prefontaine Classic.
Only three runners in the field, Shannon Rowbury, Jennifer Simpson and Sarah Brown, have faster qualifying marks.
In Eugene, the first round of the women’s 1,500 will be July 7 with the semifinals the following day. The finals will be July 10 with the top three going to Rio.
Efraimson has qualified for the IAAF U20 World Championships July 19-24 in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
