Vinecki is chasing Olympic dreams and her father's spirit
Winter Vinecki has spent more than half her life chasing his spirit around the world.
She has run marathons on seven continents trying to do her late father Michael proud. She ran across Antarctica and up Machu Picchu at 14, and later skied the Alps and the Rockies, driven by his memory and the determination to spare other families the pain she and her family endured.
She has refused to be deterred by a torn ACL or seven facial fractures that required reconstructive surgery. After the surgery, a bandage covered the right side of her face.
“NEVER GIVE IN,” her mother wrote on it, summing up her daughter.
And on Sunday evening, the journey and Michael's spirit will lead Vinecki, 23, to the top of Genting Snow Park A&M Stadium, in front of her the Olympic Games women's aerials competition and the stage she has dreamed of since she was 9.
Vinecki has come to the Beijing Olympics to not only chase a medal but to use the Games' global stage as an opportunity to raise awareness for prostate cancer.
Team Winter (www.teamwinter.org), a nonprofit foundation Vinecki and her mother, Dr. Dawn Estelle, set up when Winter was 9, has raised more than $500,000 for prostate cancer research.
“I've always dreamed of going to the Olympics and competing on the biggest stage in the world,” she said. “When I was younger, it was always more gratifying knowing that I was crossing the finishing line not just for myself but for a cause. So it's really amazing knowing that I'm out there raising awareness for prostate cancer, but in general inspiring kids and adults to do something for a cause.”
The feeling of the loss never goes away.
“Sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago that he was here and passed away,” Vinecki said, “and other times it feels just like yesterday.”
Michael Vinecki was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of prostate cancer on his 40th birthday. Winter, the second of his and Estelle's four children, was just 9.
The family lived in the small town of Gaylord, Michigan, about an hour south of the Mackinac Bridge that connects the state's two peninsulas, on 200 acres next to her grandparents' 2,000-acre potato and carrot farm.
Estelle was a runner and triathlete. Trips to her races were family adventures. A race in Canada had a kids' event and Vinecki hopped in. Before long, she was joining her mother in road races. She was 5 when she did her first triathlon.
The mother and daughter were competing in a race in Florida that offered participants an opportunity to raise money for a cause of their choosing. Vinecki chose childhood obesity. She decided to set up Team Winter to raise money and awareness for the issue after returning to Michigan.
Michael Vinecki's interests were more musical. He played in a polka band. Eventually he decided to follow his wife and daughter in triathlons. He purchased his first triathlon bike shortly before his 40th birthday.
He never had a chance to race on it.
Michael and Dawn were open with their children about his diagnosis.
As well as his prospects. “They didn't try to hide information from us just because we were so young,” Vinecki said.
She decided to shift the focus of Team Winter from childhood obesity to prostate cancer.
“When my dad was going through prostate cancer, there wasn't much awareness of it,” she said. “It was more common than breast cancer at the time, but the men didn't want to talk about it, so a 9-year-old girl at the time was going to talk about it for them.”
And talk she did. Handing out blue Team Winter wristbands at races, imploring dads and grandfathers during talks at races to get tested regularly.
And she and Estelle raised money. A lot of money. By the end of the first year, Team Winter had collected more than $100,000.
Ten months after being diagnosed, Michael Vinecki died at 41.
His daughter channeled even more energy into the foundation. It was her way of fighting back against the disease and heartache.
“I think it made it so I felt I had a way to honor my dad,” she said, “and do something so I wasn't just bottling up all these feelings and being sad all the time. I was able to do something about it.”
After Michael's death, Estelle moved the family to Salem, Oregon. Vinecki took up alpine skiing on Mount Bachelor in the Cascades.
Vinecki was at an awards ceremony in the fall of 2011 when she was approached by Emily Cook, a three-time Olympic freestyle skier. Vinecki's speech at an awards ceremony had resonated with Cook, who had lost her mother at a young age. Cook invited Vinecki to Park City, Utah, to try freestyle skiing.
By the summer of 2017, Vinecki was on track to qualify for the Olympics in South Korea. But while training, Vinecki lost her balance and landed face first in a training pool, shattering her face.
A few weeks later, she tore her ACL to put her Olympic dreams on hold.
Her breakthrough finally came last season with a World Cup victory in Moscow. She followed that with two podium finishes. This season, she posted fifth-place finishes at World Cup events in Finland.
“My strength comes from trying to be the best that I can be, no matter what I'm doing,” Vinecki said. “Another thing that my strength comes from was losing my dad at a young age. Seeing all the things that he never got the chance to do, I really want to take advantage of every opportunity that I have and to really live each day like it's my last.”
Monday evening, she will stand atop the Olympic hill, her biggest opportunity yet before her, a blue Team Winter wristband tight against her pulse, other memories of Michael even closer.
“Most of what I carry about him is in my heart,” she said.
Then she will take off, attacking a series of obstacles as she always has, fearless and driven by the spirit of a father who never saw her take flight.
“I've got to think some part of him is up there watching down, giving me a big smile,” she said. “I think he would think it was pretty crazy and also pretty cool that I'm getting to to fly around through the sky.”
Brushing up against heaven.