Kara Winger and I have been traveling parallel courses, sort of.
You know, they’re parallel like a person flying in a plane at 30,000 feet can be parallel to someone staggering along the ground as long as both are headed in the same direction.
This spring marks the 18th anniversary of when Winger first picked up a javelin at the behest of her geometry teacher — who also happened to be a track coach — when Winger (then Kara Patterson) was a freshman at Skyview High School.
That spring of 2001 also marked the start of my tenure at The Columbian.
And over those 18 years, I’ve been privileged to watch many high school athletes from Clark County blossom into state champions then move on to shine as college athletes and beyond.
But being able to watch the path Winger has traveled over the past nearly two decades has been particularly special.
She was an All-American at Purdue University who went on to win eight national championships in the javelin and is a three-time Olympian (Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016).
And it all started that spring 18 years ago when Winger was a swimmer/basketball player looking for a spring activity.
“Try something new,” she said.
It’s the message Winger had for the track and field athletes at Skyview High School when she paid a visit to practice at her alma mater on Friday.
“I love coming back and seeing that the kids today are exactly like the kids were when I was in high school,” Winger said. “It just ran the gamut of talent and experience. You have the jokesters and the kids who take it really seriously … But it’s like I was telling the kids today. Not everyone is going to be the best. But all of you can do your best. And that’s what’s so fun about having so many different levels of talent. Everyone was having a great time just improving on their own experience.”
Friday was the third consecutive spring that Winger has returned to visit a Skyview practice. She said none of the visits to Skyview were planned. They were more informal visits during a quick trips home to see family.
And what high school coach would say no to a three-time Olympian stopping by practice?
Winger had been down in California last week preparing for the 2019 international track and field season, which she plans to kick off in late May with meets in Norway, Germany and Italy.
It all leads up to a later-than-usual conclusion to the track season with the world championships in Doha, Qatar on Sept. 30 to Oct. 6.
“It’s delayed because if it were held in August, it would be really sweltering” in Qatar, Winger said. “It kind throws a wrench into what a normal season would be, but I’m excited for the change. It’s nice to sort of mix it up. I haven’t had the type of results at major championships that I’ve dreamed of, so hopefully the different sequencing of the season will work in my favor.”
Preparing for another season at age 32, Winger finds herself reflecting at her career in track and field.
“I’ve gotten so much out it and I’m just so happy with how my life has gone,” she said. “Like meeting my husband (fellow thrower Russ Winger), being coached by the people I’m being coached by, where I live (Colorado Springs). It’s just like all these things are just so positive, and that’s due to the javelin.
“But it also hurts a little bit. I feel really good physically, but at the end of every season, there’s a different ache and pain. I’m finding that being a 32-year-old javelin thrower is different that being a 29-year-old javelin thrower.”
That’s led Winger to lay out a plan that includes making a run at a fourth Olympic games — the 2020 games in Tokyo — before wrapping up her competitive career after the 2021 world championships in Eugene, Ore.
“That would be my 20th season as a javelin thrower,” she said. “I love that round number. I feel really good physically. It’s just that every athlete would want to have control over the end of their career. … I’m having a blast, but I want for that to have always been the case in my career. And what better way to end a career than to do it on a home soil world championships runway.”
And there’s one more component to Winger’s plan.
“I’d like to invite all of Vancouver Washington to this plan,” she said. “So come on down.”
Guess I’ll have to make plans to stagger my way to Eugene in 2021 to follow Kara’s last flight.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep editor for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.
