It’s another installment of our People Who Throw Things series! This time we’re talking javelin with 4x Olympian Kara Winger. Kara spent 15 years as a professional athlete, and in that time she competed at Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 (where she was also elected for Closing Ceremony flagbearer). She stays involved with the throws community as a coach, official and ambassador for the sport.
We talk with Kara about how javelin works. Kara breaks down the makeup (and cost) of a javelin, the physics involved with the event, the approach, the throw and follow-through. Plus, we get some insight on her Olympic experiences and what she’s up to today!
Everything you want to know about javelin is right here!
If you’ve missed the other episodes in our People Who Throw Things series, check them out:
- Para Discus: Paralympian Ness Murby on How Para Discus Works
- Para Javelin: Para Javelin with Paralympic Medalist Justin Phongsavanh
- Para Shot Put: Para Shot Put with Noelle Malkamaki
- Shot Put: Olympic Gold Medalist Michelle Carter on Shot Put
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
Photo: Team USA
TRANSCRIPT
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438-Javelin with 4x Olympian Kara Winger
Theme Music
Jill Jaracz: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. If you love the games, we are the show for you. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, joined as always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown.
Alison, hello. How are you?
Alison Brown: I have recently discovered I am really bad at throwing things. Yeah. How so? What, what, what all are you trying to throw? So I was trying to throw a tennis ball for not my dog, for a different dog, and I guess I’m used to having little dogs where my pathetic throws are good. But this was [00:01:00] a much bigger dog, and my pathetic throws were not good, so I could use some throwing help.
Well, lucky for you, we have a javelin thrower on today, and, uh- Can you imagine, like, the javelin thrower with her dog? That must be the best. Oh my gosh.
Jill Jaracz: That must be the best. We didn’t even ask her if we had dogs. Kara, let us know y- if you have dogs, and they get– Uh, I mean, you’d have to have a big dog or a little dog who just needs to run a lot.
[00:01:30] Run, yes, exactly. And, uh, oh my gosh. And just hurl
Alison Brown: that tennis ball down the field. Yeah, right?
Jill Jaracz: Right? Oh my gosh. But watch, what, what would happen if you could throw a javelin but you couldn’t throw a ball very well? You know what I mean? That’s fair. So, you know, no, no shame. You don’t wanna be
Alison Brown: throwing the javelin at the dog.
Jill Jaracz: Bring back the– I also forgot to ask, do you ever wish Jart, Jarts would come back? But, but I don’t think Kara’s old [00:02:00] enough to remember Jarts. Yeah, fair enough. Do you remember Jarts? I do remember Jarts. And, and listeners, if you don’t remember Jarts, these were lawn darts. Basically, you threw- It was a, a big spear.
Well, it wasn’t a big spear. It was a little spear. It was like- It was like a needle … yeah, it was like the size of a, a, a, a spade or, you know, like a dig, a, a little trowel or something that you’d use in the garden to dig. And you threw them at a target, and it would land in the ground, and [00:02:30] you’d throw them back and forth, and of course, people got impaled.
Like you do when you’re playing with javelins. You know,
Alison Brown: those of us who were children in the ’70s and the ’80s, it is a miracle any of us survived. I
Jill Jaracz: know. I know. I know. But talking about, well, it’s not a great segue, but survivors, uh,
Kara Winger interview
Jill Jaracz: we have, another installment of our People Who Throw Things series.
This time we’re focusing on javelin with four-time Olympian Kara Winger. [00:03:00] During her extensive elite competitive career, Kara won a Pan American Games and Diamond League final. She also won a silver medal at the World Athletics World Championships, in 2022. Kara also competed at Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016, and Tokyo 2020, where she was also elected to be the flag bearer at the closing ceremony. She did come out of retirement and had to get her javelin back from the US Olympic & Paralympic Museum, where she had, uh, donated it, uh, sh- to [00:03:30] try to make the team for Paris 2024.
She fell short of the Olympic standard by .78 meters. Today, she is still heavily involved in the throws committee through coaching, being an ambassador, and officiating. She also has a role with the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee as the Director of Alumni Relations. we’re so excited to have Kara with us to break down the sport and its components.
You will never look at a javelin the same way again. Take a listen.
Kara Winger, thank you so much for joining us. [00:04:00]
Kara Winger: Thank you for having me.
What a javelin is made of
Jill Jaracz: Ja, We are very excited to talk javelin with you and getting back into summer sports for us. let’s start with just the basics. What’s a javelin made out of?
Kara Winger: Okay, so I get really excited when people are excited to learn about javelin ’cause most people are, and it’s just this mystery.
So happy to be the solver of that mystery for you. The best javelins in the world are made with a combination of aluminum and carbon fiber. The stiffer, the javelin, the [00:04:30] potentially further the javelin will fly because it is absorbing your. Force that you’re putting onto it rather than dissipating it with flexibility.
So the animal house like wobbly javelin, is like not a good javelin. It’s not going to stay straight and fly well and resist not only the pressure you’re putting on it, but air pressure as well as a javelin with aluminum and more carbon fiber than less to fly the best that it possibly can. That makes it harder to [00:05:00] throw because it has more potential to hurt you, the stiffer than it is, but it can potentially fly further by absorbing those forces.
Alison Brown: So the idea is there’s a combination of stiffness versus flexibility.
Kara Winger: Yes.
Alison Brown: And the flexibility makes it easier to throw, but the stiffness makes it go further.
Kara Winger: Yes. and to back up one big giant step, it’s a giant metal toothpick. The javelin, uh, it is. A tapered on both ends, basically airplane wing [00:05:30] shape, but in a spherical fashion.
So giant metal toothpick that you throw as far as you can. The women’s javelin is about seven feet long and weighs 600 grams or 1.2 pounds.
Jill Jaracz: Do they weigh it every time? Every competition, yes. Okay.
Kara Winger: Yes.
Kara Winger’s favorite javelin
Jill Jaracz: Do you have multiple javelins for different kinds of weather?
Kara Winger: I do. And it’s less weather dependent and more wind dependent, but that’s a little bit of a misnomer.
It’s not actually super true. It’s true for me. I have a favorite javelin for sure. And it is a quote unquote [00:06:00] headwind javelin. But in theory, the tailwind javelins are better, so I am breaking the mold. Um, Allison, my favorite javelin is more flexible than it should be, and it is a headwind javelin when studies have shown that tailwind, javelins are supposed to fly further in all conditions.
Alison Brown: Does your favorite javelin have a name?
Kara Winger: No, I, I’ve never named it. What would you name a javelin. Gimme some ideas.
Alison Brown: I don’t know.
Kara Winger: Too late Poke.
Alison Brown: Jerry. Jerry
Kara Winger: Pokey. [00:06:30] Pokey is good. I like that and I love poke. So there we go.
Jill Jaracz: So why do you like that about your favorite javelin when it goes against the grain?
What? What about that makes it work for you?
Kara Winger: There is the X factor, and I think every sport has this that uses equipment of, it just feels good. it flies well for me. It gives me confidence when it’s in my hand. There is something about like my history [00:07:00] with that personal implement that. It tells me it’s gonna go far.
And if I’m struggling in a competition, if I was struggling in my career, I could pick that javelin up and have just 2% more confidence that I could do what I was wanting to do on the runway technically. So I can’t really answer that. It’s just, it’s just feeling, it is just that intangible that I think every athlete wishes they didn’t have to rely on, and none of us have to rely on that.
But it’s just like a back pocket thing that makes you [00:07:30] feel really good.
What a javelin costs and how long it lasts
Jill Jaracz: What does a javelin cost?
Kara Winger: About a thousand dollars for a good one. Okay. These days, like you really can get them for cheaper. Um, I have a friend that just bought a really good one on, the internet for not very much money, and that’s seems too good to be true, but it’s true.
And the less expensive implements are getting better and better. So there are. Javelins you can find for like 200 bucks that are gonna serve you really well if you’re starting [00:08:00] out in a development capacity as a javelin thrower. So they do not have to cost a thousand dollars, but the good ones do.
Jill Jaracz: What makes the the price increase?
what in the javelin makes it better?
Kara Winger: I believe the, brand name A Nemo Javelins, uh, Nicholas Nemo is Hungarian Olympic champion, I think 1976, either 72 or 76, he broke the Olympic record. Um, and he was [00:08:30] too old to be doing that. And it was just, it’s like one of my favorite stories. So he, he just blew everybody out of the water and won his first Olympic gold at his last games.
and then went on to kind of found this nm Javelins. Company, which is my favorite brand. Nordic is another, manufacturer globally that makes really good implements. A lot of men really like throwing them, and that is not true across the board, but it’s, it’s more typical for men to really enjoy Nordic implements.
And there are a lot of women who like throwing them. so I [00:09:00] think the higher amount of carbon fiber and the higher stiffness and the just more complexity in the technology that goes into the javelin is where the price increases. So a cheaper javelin doesn’t have as much complicated ingredients, uh, and is probably more flexible.
Alison Brown: And how long does your javelin last?
Kara Winger: I’ve had my favorite one tipped, like I was throwing it in warmups in Zagreb, Croatia, in I think [00:09:30] 2017. And it like hit a rock in the field. and the very, very tip of it broke off, like broke the metal. I’d had it for. At least 10 years at that point. I took it from Purdue, like to my professional career and mourned the loss of it.
Like had thrown my first American record with it in my career and just loved it. Again, it’s like my, my comfort Ja lib. So kind of kept it in my garage for a while and then was like, oh, there’s this guy that re does the Javelins. Ron Johnson in Oregon. [00:10:00] Um, Southern Oregon is where he lives. He’s called the Javelin man.
He’s awesome. So I sent him a couple implements to like straighten and get new tips on and like he repaints them if you wanted to. and got that javelin back and then got to throw it in competition again.
Alison Brown: It’s like a cobbler for javelin.
Kara Winger: A hundred percent. Yes. Mm-hmm.
Jill Jaracz: Just get ’em resold. You’ll be fine.
They’re still perfectly good. Yeah. I was gonna say, so you’ve had a very long career. Mm-hmm. So did you notice [00:10:30] technology changing in the javelin?
Kara Winger: Yes, and I tried out new Javelins, like different kinds. Um, I actually, one of my favorite stories that I’ll never get over, uh, and I can’t believe I missed the opportunity to meet Mr.
Nimmi himself in Budapest when I went to World Championships in 2023. I just like wasn’t brave enough to go say hi. Classic. Yeah. Social anxiety. It was always also during the Javelin competition, so I was like, he’s coaching, I, there’s a really good like Hungarian men’s javelin throw. I don’t wanna [00:11:00] be distracting, like all that stuff.
But I threw my first American record in 2010 with that javelin. And it’s like, it’s not, like I said, it’s not the most stiff, it’s not, it’s my comfort chaplain. But I threw that one and I got an email from him like the next week, I am 22, I am just leaving college. I am breaking the American record with a like, not good enough quote unquote javelin.
And he sends me this email, he says, you’re throwing the wrong implement. I want to send you Javelins. And I was like, [00:11:30] what?
Are you serious? I was 24, so blew my socks off. Like really? This legend of the sport is like trying to give me implements. That’s incredible. And I always tried, like the new thing, like the new model of Nordic, the new model of NM myth, like stuff that was supposed to in theory, like help me throw farther.
And I had really good moments with a lot of them, but it just, it paled in comparison to my favorite one. [00:12:00] So I dabbled, I tried the new technology. It’s not that different, but a little bit. Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: What did they say when you’re still like, this is still my favorite.
Kara Winger: nobody said anything and it wasn’t something I like really advertised.
I, I don’t know if you guys saw, I know you do your homework. I really enjoy your storytelling and your depth of knowledge about the movements. but I dabbled in the javelin again in 2024 and that javelin is in the US Olympic and Paralympic [00:12:30] Museum here in Colorado Springs where I live. ’cause part of my like initial retirement after 2022 was, Hey, take this from me so that I don’t pick it back up again.
So I had to go ask for it back so I could throw it in 2024. And at the end of 2022, I really was still, that season that I had said would be my last like, kind of battling to try and throw those better javelins to prove to myself that like my technique was in a spot that I could do it and make the technology [00:13:00] work for me.
And then I was like, I just wanna have a great time. I just wanna enjoy what I’m doing. I just wanna feel really comfortable like picking this thing up. So I actually won my silver medal at Worlds in 22 with a different javelin with with a better one. a higher rated one. A stiffer one. And then after that it was like, I’ve gotten way more than I’ve ever thought possible, always wanted it, but injuries and all of those things, like now I’m just gonna throw this javelin that I love.
And then I got even [00:13:30] more out of that season. So, nobody really said anything about it ’cause they think the results spoke for themselves.
Jill Jaracz: Speaking of people who were older, winning medals, the whole getting the silver at Worlds was just like a nice cap to Yeah. To the career. Um,
Kara Winger: yeah, it was amazing.
Breaking down the javelin approach
Jill Jaracz: Okay, so Obviously technology doesn’t make the javelin thrower. So let’s talk about the approach. How do you break down the, I’m throwing this thing in the air.
Kara Winger: Yes.
Americans [00:14:00] tend to emphasize the power position. And I think that’s because, and that what I mean by that is your, if you’re right handed thrower, your right foot is back. Your left foot is forward, and you are then going to rotate your right hip into the throw and throw the javelin or the shot foot or the discus from a standing position.
So that’s your power position. if you think about as an American pitching, like you are throwing something, stand there and throw it like that’s your power position. So we tend to teach the javelin [00:14:30] from stationary to moving. And that’s not necessarily different internationally, but uh, other countries tend to understand the run or the approach from a younger age than Americans do because they might start out in the javelin versus in baseball or softball, um, or other sports.
That don’t necessarily have that, but you can also watch a quarterback in football. I like have a dream to coach a quarterback like a high level quarterback throwing the javelin because the kind of lateral [00:15:00] motion that they’re doing is a crossover, like the end of the javelin approach into throwing something on a hail Mary pass, like as far as you possibly can.
So the mechanics of quarterbacking are much more similar to javelin throwing. Garth Brooks famously through the javelin and played quarterbacks. Mm-hmm.
Jill Jaracz: Wow.
Kara Winger: Yeah. Growing up very cool, famous in the javelin world. Now you can spread it around play wildfire. so the approach is essential to transferring your [00:15:30] speed to your actual throw.
The physics of track and field sports
Kara Winger: So you are the javelin’s, one of the only, it’s the only event that is a run, a jump and a throw in track and field.
Jill Jaracz: Take that
Kara Winger: triple
Jill Jaracz: jump.
Kara Winger: Yeah. Right? Yeah. Because they’re not throwing anything. They’re throwing their bodies. And when I talk to horizontal jumpers about the block in the javelin and the fact that it is very similar to a takeoff leg in the long jump or triple jump, their minds are blown a little bit.
Pole vault, same thing. Like they get to actually take off [00:16:00] instead of transferring forces through their body into the implement that they’re propelling. Like we have to withstand that pressure rather than release that pressure in going into the air and then doing something else with it.
Jill Jaracz: Sorry, I’m blown by the physics aspect of it. The, the
Kara Winger: physics important. Physics are so fun in track and field. Yeah. And so much of, um, like I’m, I’m level one certified via USA track and field. I’m also certified official. Um, so I do a lot of like different [00:16:30] versions of understanding the events, like from different perspectives and I really enjoy that.
and resisting rotation is a huge part of like every track and field event, even sprinting, right? You like, you’re counteracting your body’s natural desire to like go that way when you drive one side of it. and that’s what we’re doing. Triple jump is very challenging in that way, in all of the phases for sure.
But we’re resisting that rotation while our feet are planted and, moving around after building up lots of forces by [00:17:00] sprinting toward that position.
Alison Brown: So where in your body. Is the power coming from
Kara Winger: legs? Okay. Hips core.
Alison Brown: And that’s all in the resisting the rotation. Because the natural rhythm would be to turn toward whatever side is holding the javelin.
Kara Winger: Yes. To turn out of it. Mm-hmm. to just like dissipate all the forces rather than like stay within them and transfer them vertically up through your body. So [00:17:30] if you think about batting in baseball more than, pitching or throwing from the outfield, the verticalized rotation of like turning your back hip into the motion first and then letting the rest of your body like follow that so that you are uncoiling systematically in a way that in the very, very last moment.
Goes into your fingertips and then into the javelin. That’s what you’re doing. You just sprint first to do that and then [00:18:00] have funny sideways steps and impulse the jumping part to get into that position.
Javelin follow-through
Alison Brown: Okay? So I’m thinking you’ve got one hip that hurts all the time
Kara Winger: if you stop. Yes, if you successfully, it’s this like wild combination.
And this is what took me way too long to understand. It’s why I tore my ACL two times, not just one in my left leg because yes, the hip might hurt, but, an ACL block leg injury is not that uncommon in the [00:18:30] javelin either. I just did it twice a out of like 10 thou, thousands and thousands and thousands of throws.
I only tore my ACL two times 10 years apart. So wild. I took way too long to understand and most people. Are the same. Like, you can hear this all you want to, but until you feel it, it’s really difficult to describe in a way that makes actual sense to employ the transference. Like you don’t have to stop on a dime in the javelin.
You [00:19:00] can follow through. There’s a, I believe, Portuguese athlete who does a cartwheel after the throw, and people see that as the point of his throw, but it’s actually just a continuation of the throw in that like he’s turned sprinting and horizontal forces in the legs into vertical forces in the upper body via his core.
So it’s like, it just goes from horizontal to diagonal to vertical through your own body. And then he finishes that by like popping up and [00:19:30] over the block leg and like letting his body be propelled in the way that it naturally wants to. So it’s not the point of the throw, it’s the byproduct of how he does throw his cartwheel.
Jill Jaracz: So you have a fault line then if you’re. Thinking about your follow through, how close do you really want to be to that fault line?
Because you know, jumpers get really close, but I was watching a bunch of javelin and there’s a lot of space there for people. [00:20:00]
Kara Winger: Depends on the person, right? Like some people can stop on a dime. I never could because I knew I needed to have the confidence to truly attack the end of the throw and know that I had space to slow down and know that I had space to actually.
Do the mechanic things that I needed to do and let my body follow through, let my body transfer those forces instead of stopping the forces. If you stop the hip hurts, the knee hurts, you might tear the ACL. If you allow both legs to be involved in both hips to kind of rise [00:20:30] up and into the throw and give yourself that space to follow through at the end of the throw, you’re probably gonna have less pain in your lower body and low back, from that, more jarring than it needs to be motion if you don’t give yourself the space to finish the throw completely.
So lots of full approach practices in competition give you that individualized space that you need.
Alison Brown: How much face planting is happening during training?
Kara Winger: thankfully little, [00:21:00] thankfully, there are times one of my most embarrassing moments in all of javelin. I was alone with my coach on like the far side of the field in Chula Vista, California at the Chula Vista Olympic and Paralympic training center at the time.
And there are videos out there where your spikes catch on the top of your other foot, and you basically hog tie yourself as you’re running down the runway. And then that is the face plant of all face plants in the javelin. [00:21:30] So I gave myself a concussion once when I did that, this was not that time, and I did that.
It was like one of the first times I’ve ever had it happen, and the coach at the time did not say a word, like utter silence. I’m ready to pop up and be making fun of myself and laugh at it like everyone does when they see those videos on the internet. Zero words were spoken. I just went to the back of the runway again and got back to work and it was very, very, very awkward.[00:22:00]
I hated it. We’ll never forget it.
Javelin: The run and approach
Jill Jaracz: Oh man. let’s talk a little bit about the run and approach part of it, because it is a funky, you run, you sidestep. How did that develop? Who figured out like, oh, we really need to do a shuffle in here.
Kara Winger: You know, I don’t know who figured it out. I should know that.
That is very silly of me. Maybe you guys can addendum after some research. But it’s half of [00:22:30] karaoke, right? The crossovers. So you start out sprinting, the whole idea of the approach is to accelerate the whole time. So you are accelerating into the moment of the throw and through the entire throw. And if you start off too fast and you slow down, you’re not optimizing like the run speed that you have.
A lot of young javelin throwers are gonna run really far ’cause they see professionals doing that. They see people on the internet doing that and then basically come to a stop before they even get into their power position, which [00:23:00] just means you should have stood there and throw the javelins like you’re not getting anything out of the run.
You quote unquote sprint. I, I’m not that fast, but I couldn’t like full bore sprint, I couldn’t handle the speed that I could bring into a throw technically. So you’re finding the happy medium of like your forward running, relaxed. As much as you can and as fast as you can go while being confident that you can handle that speed at the end of the approach, whatever that means for you.
Like steps [00:23:30] wise, pole vaulters and many horizontal jumpers count their steps on their left foot contact, so I do that too, that it’s like three lefts before you. Then what’s called withdraw the javelin, pull it back behind your head and turn sideways with your shoulders and hips. Do half of karaoke so that your back foot is only going in front of your front foot rather than the actual karaoke motion where it goes behind.
And maybe you do two of those [00:24:00] crossovers is what they’re called before you do a bigger crossover called an impulse or a penultimate step. Your last like big hop before you. Then stop transfer your momentum at the block in the power position. To the actual throw.
Jill Jaracz: How do you figure out how fast to go
Kara Winger: trial and error
conversations with your coach?
Jill Jaracz: Does
Kara Winger: it also trusting what you see on video? Mm-hmm.
Jill Jaracz: Does it change with the wind or no?
Kara Winger: Uh, [00:24:30] sort of. It takes some practice. It’s better to just rely on like your tried and true approach that you practice in practice and everyone deals with the same. Weather conditions, wind conditions, all of that stuff.
So like, if you can stay in your own preparation and confidence in that preparation, you’re gonna do better than if you try to adjust on the fly to changing conditions. That being said, in a headwind, like maybe you have to attack a little [00:25:00] bit more than you would just to like, keep the confidence up, keep the acceleration up, keep the drive up, and really punch the javelin into a headwind.
my first American record was in a pretty serious headwind at, uh, Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa, and it can really help. The javelin is an aerodynamic implement, and so a plane takes off either away from the wind or into the wind, right? And usually during. Into the wind to get lift, like the [00:25:30] air goes underneath the implement so you can’t throw it too at too steep of an angle or the wind will knock it backwards and down.
And if you really punch the point of the javelin into that headwind, it can really help you out by lifting the javelin even more than if it was still, but you gotta attack.
Making adjustments in javelin
Alison Brown: So how are you making those adjustments physically? Is that hand motion, is that shoulder height? Where is that adjustment happening?
Kara Winger: For me, it was always left [00:26:00] shoulder down thoughts. So you’re like really leaning into, toward the wind, toward the fault line, toward the throw that it’s happening, like eagerly approaching the opportunity rather than being intimidated by it. If that makes sense. So the left side of my body, once I get into the crossovers, is the one facing the wind and I have to very consciously like keep that true, maintain that shoulder levelness in relation to the ground and attack the [00:26:30] wind with the left shoulder down.
Releasing the javelin
Jill Jaracz: Does the angle at which you release the javelin vary or do you try to Yes. Okay. So what makes it, what makes it vary?
Kara Winger: Shoulder positions, shoulder angle. like I just described, that left shoulder down cue got even more important regardless of conditions like later in my career. and I guess you’re not trying to change the angle of your release, but.
There’s a lot of conversation about like 30 [00:27:00] degrees to the ground is the optimal javelin angle to release that. And if you watch Olympic coverage and paralympic coverage, if you get to see it on TV of javelin throwers, um, who are both seated and standing, actually it’s pretty similar in terms of like aerodynamics, what you wanna see, the javelin released at the theoretical angle is typically very much, shallower than what the steep angle actually is of the successful throws, like the most successful ones.[00:27:30]
So especially in Paris, if you watch, the Arshad Nadiem, he broke the Olympic record on the men’s side, 92 something meters, and his angle of release was like much. Bigger than people say that it should be quote unquote, but Olympic record for this, anyone has ever thrown at the Olympic games. So like, there you go.
The the proof is in the pudding situation and in real time on a lot of that coverage, there are stop motion like analytics of the angles of [00:28:00] release, which is super cool, a really neat development in what you can see, um, in real time for the best throwers in the world. So that comes down to, I think, like it’s another X factor.
It’s another like power moment confidence booster. Like when you are at a high enough level, it doesn’t really matter if the angle is perfect, if you don’t feel powerful within that position and you don’t feel connected, quote unquote, to the grip of the [00:28:30] javelin, like your hand. If it’s too tight and maintaining that angle versus if you let the muscles relax and do their job and the angle is maybe a little bit bigger, but you put so much more power into it, your ending distance is way further.
What javelin parties are like
Jill Jaracz: What is conversation like at Javelin parties when you get into talking Angle?
Kara Winger: I think it’s just much more understanding among elite competitors that it’s not a hard and fast [00:29:00] rule at all. Some people stick to it, but they’re typically. Either, I don’t wanna be rude, but coaches who didn’t necessarily throw that far or people who did throw that far, but they just happened to like be hitting the numbers that they’re supposed to be hitting.
And then the majority of, especially just some of my favorite women to compete against, like some of the competitors that will always be lifelong friends. We just so wholeheartedly agree that like, I’m so sick of being [00:29:30] told that my angle is too, too big. I’m so sick. Like, can’t people see the results speak for themselves?
Um, please stop talking to me about it. So it’s a, it’s a cool solidarity experience at the Javelin party.
Jill Jaracz: Interesting. I, I can imagine the forum posts. I can imagine the discussions. I, I’ve
Kara Winger: seen the Instagram comments. Yeah, for sure.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Kara Winger: Yeah. And especially when I was healing from uh, ACL number two, it was like going really well.
And there would be a lot of people like, oh, gotta fix the angle now and then [00:30:00] you’ll be set.
Alison Brown: And that’s when you say, would you like me to tear your ACL?
Kara Winger: Thank you so much for your input. I’ll take it under advisement.
The differences between men’s and women’s javelin
Alison Brown: Now, besides the si uh, the, the size of the javelin, is there anything different between the men’s and the women’s games?
Kara Winger: I think there’s a lot of talk in track and field in the last couple years about the women’s implement versus the men’s in the javelin, because in every other [00:30:30] throwing event, I know we’re talking throws in general too, which I absolutely love. I announced also, so I’m just like a huge nerd for throws. shot put, discus hammer, all of the women’s implements are half the weight of the mens.
Javelin. The javelin on the women’s side is three quarters, the weight of the men’s javelin. So our world record is 72 28. The men’s world record in the javelin is 98. 48. And any like given day, any given elite competition, if there’s a 20 meter gap between [00:31:00] the women’s javelin and the men’s, that’s pretty good.
Like that’s a pretty standard, like those two throws are the same between men and women. And many of the women’s world records are like less than the men’s on in the other throws, but they’re much closer than on the women’s and men’s javelin side. So there isn’t really a huge difference besides size.
It’s just that proportionately, it’s very different than the other throwing events. So I like to say. [00:31:30] The big difference between men’s and women’s Javelins is that there are more similar body types that throw the javelin on the men’s side, the women’s side, I’m like one of the tallest in the world, which didn’t used to be true, but by the end of my career was true.
And there’s just a lot more women from a variety of places that have a variety of body types, that have a lot of talent in the javelin. Maybe that’s because it’s relatively lighter as far as like the overall throwing [00:32:00] implements, but I just, I don’t know what I can count that for. Like maybe the men’s javelin is heavy enough that there is a certain catapult that throws it best, and that is a tall rectangular man typically.
Alison Brown: Now women javelin throwers do tend to be leaner. Say hammer or shot, put throwers
Kara Winger: sometimes uhhuh.
Javelin throwers and body type
Alison Brown: What I’m just wondering is there, what, what’s a, what’s a good javelin [00:32:30] body type?
Kara Winger: A body?
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Kara Winger: Yeah. And it’s like, that’s a stereotype that I’m describing on the men’s side. ’cause there are a little, a few differences, but there’s just more variety on the women’s side.
So I’d say the implement, yeah, the men’s is bigger. We throw, like, I threw 800 gram javelins and men’s javelin in practice a lot. And so it’s a little bit more accessible. Like probably hammer throwers, [00:33:00] maybe some discus throwers are throwing men’s implements on the women’s side for training. probably pretty few shot putters, throw the men’s implement, um, as women.
Not that they couldn’t, I fully believe that World Championships Jackson could do that no problem. But, Just injury potential wise, like it’s more of a factor for sure. And I really enjoyed throwing 800 gram javelins. Like there’s just a lot of specific strength extra mobility. Your arm is dragged back by that heavier implement than a women’s javelin at 600 [00:33:30] grams, or especially an underweight jalin at 400, which is actually a toothpick.
So yeah, there’s no perfect body type. I joke that my shorter competitors had less time to make mistakes than I did with my very long limbs. So they’re actually, they tend to be either they’re way better than me technically and more consistent, or, they’re more consistent because they have less body to move around.
Jill Jaracz: But, but then I also wonder like taller people have longer [00:34:00] muscles and shorter people have more compact and they get that some power built in. I mean,
Kara Winger: yeah.
Jill Jaracz: Does that have something to do with it? Maybe,
Kara Winger: yeah. Maybe there’s the potential versus the actual, Power output that you’re doing. In theory, longer lever means more distance.
You’re propelling the implement over a longer distance like in your body, but shorter lever means faster propulsion of that implement, so it all evens [00:34:30] out in the end a little bit.
Alison Brown: So does it help to be stronger or faster? Like is it strength and speed and agility, or what, what kind of skill are you? Are you leaning on the heaviest,
Kara Winger: I would say elasticity, which is more power than strength,
like speed and. Agility and connection within your body. [00:35:00] Like we do a lot of gymnastics, some really weird drills that are like connecting your right index fingertip to your left big toe through as like just distanced bands and under as weird of tension as possible to try and recreate the throwing position.
Yeah. So discipline in and out of positions. speed more than strength. I was not the strongest person in the world and helps. There’s not the most important.
Hand drag in javelin
Jill Jaracz: [00:35:30] You mentioned hand drag back was more in when you had the heavier javelin. what does it mean? How far back do you want your hand to go?
Kara Winger: As far as possible, and that is in theory true.
But really what I like to tell younger Javelins is it’s your responsibility as the thrower to keep the hand back there. So you’re pushing it back because it wants to come forward, it wants to unravel, it wants to UNT rotate. So you have to build your [00:36:00] back muscles, your posterior chain muscles to really be disciplined about your hand staying back and your fingers like pushing back as long as absolutely possible.
Just easier to feel with the heavier implement.
Jill Jaracz: How common are shoulder injuries? Because if you’re supposed to be pushing from your hips and your abs like you, because one would think on the surface it’s, well, you’re throwing something, you’re gonna have that kind of injury. But like if you’re, if you’re doing it correctly, you’re not necessarily using as much as your shoulder as you.
Think
Kara Winger: [00:36:30] Yes. And you still have to prepare it to like transfer the forces that you’re asking it to put up with. So very common, I would say there are a lot of rotator cuff injuries. There’s some labrum tears, um, less than in some of the heavier throws that rely on bench press a lot. But some javelin throwers, especially on the men’s side, are really heavy in bench.
And I did my best to do that too. Maybe bench pressed a hundred kilos at some point in my career and was very proud of that. But, yeah, like the front of the [00:37:00] shoulder and just the way that it has to rotate. There’s a lot of like lat serus armpit stuff that needs to be strengthened and, mobilized at the same time.
And then all of the rotator cuff things in the back of your shoulder. Are really important for prevention of injury. Like the big injuries really happen when you’re trying to slow your arm down after you actually take the throw. And the power can come from the [00:37:30] front, but it’s probably being transferred more often through the back and the armpit.
So shoulder injuries can happen in any of those places, and it is not necessarily like the thing that drives the throw the most, but it is a link in the chain that’s really important.
When throws go wrong
Jill Jaracz: What makes a throw go sideways, isn’t it? But obviously you wanna go straight.
Kara Winger: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: But sometimes they, they go off to the side. what body position is [00:38:00] making that happen?
Kara Winger: Mm-hmm. The lack of resistance to that rotation. So. When you see a javelin thrower’s left arm, really fly wide open if they’re a right-handed thrower, so their block arm, like the one that’s right above their straight leg out in front of them, if that is opening towards like the side of the runway or even rotating further toward the back of the runway and there’s a moment of momentum, not [00:38:30] continuing forward, but stopping or turning back toward where the throw started, that’s probably when you’re gonna see the javelin pointing more to the right, more away from the block leg side.
So it just squirts out. Like you, instead of staying in the middle, your left side goes left and your right side goes right and your, the middle of your body comes later. So you’ve split your vectors. If you see a thrower, send the javelin to the left. A [00:39:00] similar thing has happened, but they’ve tried too hard probably to stay what we call closed, which is, shoulders perpendicular to the sides of the roadway.
And then you’re kind of like ooping
The javelin. Um, and it might go to the left side. And then other factors are even hand position, like I used to have a lot of trouble with. Like my pinky wouldn’t hold onto the javelin for long enough, so I wasn’t, that’s why I lost it so high, so up, like tip up in the air.
Um, but [00:39:30] that can happen if your palm like faces a funny direction. Uh, if you see videos of people hitting themselves in the back of the head with the javelin, that’s probably what’s happening is their palm is like facing forward as the throw happens. Oh yeah. And if you don’t hit yourself in the head, you can then send the javelin, uh, with the tip pointing towards the right side.
Alison Brown: Mm. There are so many ways to hurt yourself
Kara Winger: in every sport, though, in
Alison Brown: this event,
Kara Winger: you know of. Yeah. Across the board. [00:40:00] Yeah.
Improving as a javelin thrower: Where to start
Jill Jaracz: When you’re looking at improving. where do you start? Like, I’m a, I’m a thrower, maybe I’m a high school thrower. Mm-hmm. And I wanna get better. So where, where do we look at improvement?
Kara Winger: I always say posture is everything and that’s like, like a, a power pose. Like just a confidence exercise. ’cause many people who pick up a javelin, it’s this big long thing. Especially in the US at the high school level, the boys are throwing 800 gram javelins a lot of times than the [00:40:30] women are throwing six hundreds.
Internationally. The boys might throw the 700 gram jalin, like have a little bit less pressure to like be throwing the senior implement. So if an athlete in high school in the US is picking up this big heavy javelin. They might like, their shoulders might cave and they might bend over to throw it like they learned how to throw a baseball, like they break at the hips instead of like being nice and tall.
And so one of the best high school coaches in [00:41:00] the country coached at a high school in Newburg, Oregon, Newburg High School, coached Rachel Kovich, now Buki Sarah Malone, who went to University of Oregon and like just kind of turned out these athletes. Cyrus Hostetler was a Newberg High school product and he really just like gave kids Javelins and said, figure it out.
Like that truly is like the beginning of the process. And that would be a couple weeks. And then he is like, okay, so now here’s like what we can do, but taking [00:41:30] athletes and giving them an implement to say like, how do you translate other sports into this movement? I think is like a huge first step ’cause I’ve said a lot of words that are very confusing to a beginner.
Right? On this podcast, I’m not very great, make a lot of it very confusing to a podcaster too, right? I’m not very good at breaking it down like to the developmental level and I had a really good coach who like helped me do that in high school, but [00:42:00] it truly is trial and error. It’s very individual on the women’s side because it is like relatively light.
There’s a whole lot you can do that’s not textbook that makes the javelin go far. And if you can then like feel it and apply it to, in theory, what is the best option, then you go really far. But like trusting yourself first is what I always tell, tell kids to try and do.
Could there be dramatic innovation for javelin?
Jill Jaracz: So there is potential for like a [00:42:30] fosbury flop moment to come along and change how Javelin’s thrown
Kara Winger: maybe, but it won’t be as drastic.
Right. Okay. Like it’s uh, there’s some really young coaches right now that are making a huge difference in like encouraging people to not be so regimented in what good javelin technique is. And I’m really encouraged by that. It’s a little bit dangerous, like kids could definitely hurt themselves, but it’s kind of freedom to explore what feels powerful versus what you’re told [00:43:00] is powerful.
Kara Winger’s javelin journey
Jill Jaracz: How did you get into javelin?
Kara Winger: I grew up in Washington state. It was at the time one of 13 states that had the javelin at the high school level. Now there are 22 ’cause people have been knocking on doors and getting rules changed and that’s really exciting. Uh, there might be 23 ’cause they think Idaho is in its second year with high school javelin.
Super cool. So played everything growing up and freshman year of high school did not have a spring sport lined up, but my [00:43:30] math teacher was the head track coach and he said to me in class, Kara, you should throw the jalin. And I was like, okay. Sure. Let’s see.
Alison Brown: What made him say that to you, other than the fact that you needed a spring sport, but why specifically did he look at you and said that kid’s a javelin thrower?
Kara Winger: I really can’t tell you, and I should definitely ask him. Um, Mr. Henreke, I will text him after we get off the call because I was a decent post player in [00:44:00] basketball. Like I’d been to state with the team as a freshman, but that’s really because my high school was very young, I was just like a spot filler.
I tried really hard. I was, notoriously missing a lot of layups in every game my entire career. But. Just effort is what I did. Um, coach Henrik’s son Landon was in my class and his daughter was just two years older than us. So I think he’d like seen me be an athlete in a lot of different ways growing up.
’cause I, I really tried [00:44:30] everything. I was shy and I liked to play sports to make friends instead of speaking to people. And I was the new kid a lot, so it was like my way in to stuff. and I just loved it. I love playing, I love trying. So I think he just saw variety. And I also think there was a component of like, we need more athletes on the team.
And Ja Load is where we don’t have athletes on the team. So combination of both
Jill Jaracz: far out and, and then you went to Purdue Hot hotbed of. Track and field [00:45:00]
Kara Winger: javelin, women’s javelin. Really at the time. Uhhuh. Yeah. Wow.
Jill Jaracz: Wow. I grew up in northwest Indiana, so Purdue
Kara Winger: is Oh, amazing. Close enough. Yeah. So a lot of people I know what to Purdue.
Very good. Um, there is no javelin in Indiana. That remains true. Yeah. in college actually coaches would like come to our home meets and I didn’t usually compete at home meets. I was like working in the field and I’d have them ask me to teach their kids how to throw the javelin. Like there, right before they, they threw the jalin in the meat.
It was crazy. Hotbed of women’s javelin in the US at the [00:45:30] time. The school record was set by Serene Ross, who at the time it was an American record. It was like 60 38 or something like that. So I knew that in going there, I would need to throw really far if I wanted to be the school record holder. And that would be competitive, at least at a national level, that like this was a really high bar to go and be a part of.
And my training partner, who was just a year older than me ended up graduating two years before I did. ’cause I got injured in [00:46:00] college. Uh, Lindsay Blaine is also from Washington State, so I’d met her when we were both still in high school. And then I knew she was gonna be there and she, it was really the only collegiate situation where I was gonna have a training partner.
The coach that had gotten serene and Lindsay onto campus, um, is Rodney Wick, who’s now at Notre Dame. And he actually coached, uh, Jade O’Brien to three straight indoor NCAA TFL titles, for Notre Dame. She got second outdoors last year and mid the Olympic [00:46:30] bobsled team for Lon Corina. So he is just like the best coach that I ever could have possibly asked for in college.
Like, so empowering, so caring about all of who his athletes are and somebody who really taught me how to learn together with a coach and trust myself when the pressure was really on. Like he would just look at you and you said that something was gonna be hard and be like, you can do the hard things.
Like what, what’s the problem? Go try. And I would, and [00:47:00] I’d do it and prove to myself just over and over that I could get better, with him as my teammate. So somebody who’s still really important in my life.
Jill Jaracz: When did you know you were Olympic caliber?
Kara Winger: I hit myself in the back of the head with the javelin a bunch of times at a practice my sophomore year of college.
And the next weekend, I think it was like three days later through a four meter pr that is still the Purdue track record. Like to this day, 56, 19 in the [00:47:30] snow on campus, home meet like sophomore just on accident. Like I remember the just twang of the javelin hitting me and coach, like just trying to keep me calm in this last practice before this meet.
Uh, and then figuring it out in that practice and having this pr that felt like such an accident to blow myself away, like in this performance. And it was like the first meet of the season and totally outta no out of nowhere. So, uh, I looked kind of in the mirror that day and I was like, if I [00:48:00] can do that on accident.
What can I do on purpose with real understanding and real commitment? and I was very committed, but like the understanding wasn’t there. Like I knew how early it was in the journey. And that was kind of my first moment of like, I always wanted to go to the Olympics. I watched Carrie Strug land her single legged vault as a 10-year-old in Atlanta, 1996, and was blown away and then asked to leave gymnastics after that because I got too tall.
So always in the back of my mind. But that [00:48:30] moment sophomore year was really when I was like, Jalin is it? And I can feel it. Like I’ve seen the light at the end of the tunnel. The light at the beginning of the tunnel really? ’cause it was a long tunnel for sure.
Jill Jaracz: Four Olympics. They’re all different and they’re all special in their own ways, but do you have what moments stand out to you from each of those?
Kara Winger: I love the global participation part. The Olympic truce of the games like that is my favorite thing. [00:49:00] And so I have two answers because I can’t not talk about Tokyo, but I was on a train in Rio in 2016 after I threw the furthest ever 13th place at the Olympic Games.
It’s still a record. 12 women go to the final in field events. So I still hold that furthest ever thrower at the games to not make the medal round, which is not a record I want. But now it’s something I’m pretty proud of, especially in the context of like that year and a half before. But I was on the train [00:49:30] and I’d just been so sad.
Like I, I got to the train station the day after my competition to like fall into my husband’s arms. It was like my first year at the Olympics being married to him, like having a new name, all this stuff and just like for him to be there was really cool. But this was a couple days later and I had been talking to a Brazilian person, like on the train.
And then I knew about kind of the infrastructure change of Rio GI Janeiro and the, all the construction that had happened and had just kind of a loose understanding [00:50:00] of how things change and the preparations that go into hosting and all of these things. And then everybody, I’d seen the favelas around.
Like the village areas and all the different venues and how they were just in such proximity to poverty and like the reality of life in Rio. And all of a sudden on this train, it went past the place where it used to stop before the Olympics happened. And everybody started clapping. Like the whole train was like so [00:50:30] excited that they were on the train that went further than it had ever been before.
And the man I was talking to like told me that story and I was like, oh my gosh. Like I can’t believe I’m not wearing USA gear on this train. Like I’m just kind of incognito. But he figured out that like, here’s this white lady like on this train, what’s she doing? And then I got to witness the difference that this infrastructure made to the people on the train.
It was super cool. So that was very awesome. and always teammates always [00:51:00] like being there for people. Vice versa, who were going through the same things that I was, like every experience that’s about relationships like that kept me coming back from injury was way more important than my performance or how much I thought I wanted to fold into myself after failure.
Like you have two choices. If you don’t make the final, you can wallow in your own misery or go cheer on your friends. And I always just wanted to like choose the happier one. I can be sad later, let me go be a part of this. and that paid off [00:51:30] in the most unexpected way in Tokyo when I was voted flag bear for the closing ceremonies and it’ll just never.
Be something I truly understand, but it was such a gift in my life to just pound home the message that I was enough for the people that voted for me, like without finals, uh, without a global medal at that point. Just by like showing up and loving it and encouraging people. they did that for me in the biggest way possible.
So [00:52:00] it’s really cool to have now connected with other flag bearers who feel exactly the same way. ’cause they don’t think that anybody feels that among fellow Olympians and Paralympians. They stand out and that’s really special to know that yeah, you were chosen, but you’re also exactly the same as everybody else on that team that could have done exactly the same thing.
And to go from there into the best year of my career was really, really amazing. But that would’ve been more than enough for me to leave Tokyo [00:52:30] and that’d be the last thing I ever did. ’cause it is the last thing I ever did at the games. And that’s perfect.
Kara Winger’s role at the USOPC
Jill Jaracz: After retiring now, now you are director of alumni relations at the U-S-O-P-C. What does it entail?
Kara Winger: That is my day job. Yes. And I am here, I’m not speaking on behalf of the U-S-O-P-C on the podcast, but me as a human, getting to serve my fellow Olympians and Paralympians and team USA members is really, really cool.
I joke that I’m a [00:53:00] personality hire. I do not have alumni relations experience. I wasn’t chosen for that reason. and really it entails for me doing what I’ve always done as a teammate, which is like telling my fellow athlete stories whenever mine was like too much. I was too wrapped up in my recoveries from injury or what have you, looking at people around me and saying like, wow, you’re doing amazing.
I’m gonna take something from that and encourage you, but also like apply [00:53:30] it to my own life. That’s exactly what I get to do at work every single day. And like meeting new Olympians, Paralympians, and World Championships in Pan AM’s team members and encouraging them that their story matters.
Alison Brown: What are the big challenges that are facing you and your fellow alumni?
Kara Winger: I think, and again, like very personally, and I, I bring this to the role for sure, but it’s really just like living my life. [00:54:00] As I am leaving sport ’cause I officially retired in January of 2025, so it’s been a little more than a year of filing my paperwork and getting out of the sounded drug testing pool.
Finally, after
Jill Jaracz: I was gonna say how, how is it not doing whereabouts
Kara Winger: it is incredible. And I had probably six months of anxiety about it when I traveled, but now I’m like totally free. It’s amazing. and clean sport is very important. Of course, I gladly filled out whereabouts from [00:54:30] 2007 to 2025
Jill Jaracz: cow.
Kara Winger: So I’m all set.
I’ve done my part and very proud to be associated with USADA as well as a true sport ambassador for quite a few years and their education Bridge does awesome things. I retired 2025, uh, in January and started my job march of the same year. So I had like dabbled in retirement 2023, like dealt with kind of a lot of emotions then.
And I, [00:55:00] I keep saying that I threw the javelin professionally from 2009 to 2024, right? So 15 years as a professional athlete, somebody who knew exactly who I was at practice every single day. And that mastery of something does not come quickly. Like I don’t think no matter who you are, that you’re fully prepared for what retirement will feel like.
And I truly think that athletes, no matter where they are, are just kind of perpetually [00:55:30] wrestling with what their career meant for a very long time. So I’m doing that in real time, but I fully believe that. Some of us who are 65 and 70 and even older are still kind of redefining like what their best was or figuring out that what if doesn’t matter, like it’s an unanswerable question and you did the best you could with what you had.
Um, but there’s just like a whole host of unique [00:56:00] experiences even among medalists, among non medalists, among alternates. there’s just like a whole universe of things to think about when you consider the human beings on each team. And that’s something I take really seriously and I’m not afraid to share my story.
A very cool and like still personal, uh, side of what I get to do at work is. Team USA athletes, um, that is like world championships team members and Pan Am and [00:56:30] Para Pan-American games team members who were on the pathway to the Olympic and Paralympic games but maybe didn’t quite get there, are now part of like who I get to serve.
And those are team teammates that I love and adore from all of my teams. plus my own husband who was on the World championships team in 2025. We meddled at Pan Ams together that year, and it was the first year we were married, so we actually wore the same bib because I couldn’t get people to understand that I had changed my name.
Like I didn’t know all of the [00:57:00] avenues I needed to go through to go from Patterson to winger. So we got to Pan Ams in Toronto and Patterson was like my name, ah, my Beb. And I was like, oh, dang it. I’m so upset. Uh, I will not wear this. I refuse. My name is Winger. And Russ looked at me and he said, Kara, you can wear mine.
So we both wore the same fib and we both meddled and it was like super cool. So now he is part of this alumni group that, is who I get to hang out with and tell stories [00:57:30] about.
Jill Jaracz: Very cool.
Kara Winger: And there’s a lot more to it. I would happily like join in a professional capacity, but there’s just like things I want to build to honor, I guess the history of team USA.
Jill Jaracz: Like
Kara Winger: what? Tell the stories. I have thoughts about visual representations of like who these athletes are. artwork. I love the, the relationship between art and the Olympic and Paralympic games. I often think about technique and rhythm as [00:58:00] more music than. Technique than like hard and fast rules. like Rus, he actually coached me in 2022.
My husband, when I became number one in the world. It was the most incredible season together. And we would talk about music as it relates to throwing, but I never listened to music. Actually, like on the runway it was that year. I just like turned everything off and was fully in my own experience and present more than I had been when I like, needed the music to be [00:58:30] blasting, to be hyped up for practice.
But if you are coach and you ask an athlete to like, think back to the throw that they just took, what do they most often do? Close their eyes probably. And like their head might like move around a little bit. Like thinking about what the technique was and what the rhythm was and repeating it. And to me that’s like thinking back on a song.
More so than, movement. And I just try to bring those, like creative [00:59:00] abstract thoughts into telling the stories of who athletes are.
Jill Jaracz: Interesting. Which then leads my brain to start going on a tangent of like, when you think about Olympics, there’s the Olympic art and there’s Olympic songs and things like that, that are important elements of the games that we don’t necessarily think like, oh, this is how it translates to sport.
And that’s just a statement I have no question. Well, and I feel really lucky, like professionally. I’ll always be [00:59:30] athlete Kara Winger too, right? Like, you don’t, you don’t turn that off. And I love how I’ve been able to transition outta sport but stay really connected to sport via, I did a lot of officiating last year.
Kara Winger: I really like to contribute significantly to developing athletes experience by being invisible and serving them, marking their throws, like saying their last name like, you are up here are the rules. This is your time. And I am like, reserving it for you in a really official way. Like, I really enjoy that [01:00:00] experience.
I get to work with Tracktown USA as Thoes ambassador. I’ve done that for the last two years, three years. and that’s in mingling with fans, like telling them about what’s going on in the discus ring while pre Fontane Classic is going crazy around like the, the oval at Hayward Field. and announcing so.
Get to be on the mic and just like absolutely blab about what is going on on the screen for people to see. but the, the athlete storytelling piece, like being the [01:00:30] consistent part of it, like I, I get to go and do other things, but I also get to extend who I was as an athlete, again, via those relationships into a more professional outlet in the same sport.
And I really love it. So, I love my day job. I’m very grateful for the opportunity. I. Can’t believe, like it’s intimidating a lot of times. Like to be this alumni relations person who gets to talk to some of the most accomplished athletes in the entire world and [01:01:00] help tell their stories. And I love to zoom back into my own sport in professional capacities too.
They’re just like on the, the freelance side. So just staying connected kinda at all levels to this thing that I’ve been a part of for most of my life already.
Jill Jaracz: Well, ki Winger, thank you so much for talking about javelin and throwing things.
Kara Winger: You’re so welcome. thank you for having me,
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Kara. We uh, we’ll have Kara’s social media [01:01:30] pages. She’s KaraThrowsJav almost everywhere, and she’s also on TikTok as well. So that is gonna do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening.
Alison Brown: And until next time Keep the flame alive