COLORADO SPRINGS — Kara Winger is a three-time Olympian who lives and works in Olympic City USA.
She’s gearing up for her fourth summer games after a year delay due to the pandemic. But the long road to Tokyo 2020 was a blessing in disguise. She tore her ACL three days before what would have been the competition.
"It was tough, but at the same time, I'm nearing the end of my career, so the postponement of the Olympics was all of a sudden this gift of an extra year in a career that I really love, and again, with my injury, thankfully, I had that extra time to recover and be in a better place than I would have been in 2020 if I had that injury at the Olympics,” Winger said.
Now, she’s ready for the games again and says there’s a lot to love about her sport.
“I love the simplicity of it. There are just a few important things you need to do to throw really far, but at the same time, there’s always something you can improve,” Winger said, “There’s no such thing as the perfect throw. You can just get as close as you can, so it’s just the coolest thing, to keep improving over a long period of time.”
Winger grew up in Washington and moved to Colorado Springs in 2012 with her husband Russ, who was born and raised here.
With her in-laws close, and the Olympic and Paralympic Training Center here too, it was an easy move.
When not training, Winger loves to be outdoors and take her dog, Maddie, on walks and other adventures. She also loves to make time to read and is a gifted piano player too.
Her day job is working from home on social media marketing for professional female athletes.
“That’s rewarding to work for a community that I’m a passionate member of,” Winger said.
When it comes to representing our nation on the world stage, she said that’s too intimidating of a thought, and she likes to think smaller.
“I really enjoy and get the best experience from thinking about the community I’m representing. Specifically, my family, my street, Colorado Springs in general,” Winger said.
Winger thanks her trainers and the medical staff here in Olympic City USA for helping her get to this level of competition once again, and can’t wait to do us proud in Tokyo.
She plans for these to be her final Olympic games and then retire after the World Championships in 2022, those will be in Oregon, just a couple of hours from where she grew up.
