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Winter Vinecki, a 14-year-old American girl, will be the youngest person ever to complete marathons on all seven continents once she crosses the finish line at the Athens Classic Marathon on November 10.

Vinecki, who entered her first road race at age 5, set her seven 26.2s on seven continents goal in 2009 after her father passed away from an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Team Winter, the non-profit organization Vinecki founded as a 9-year-old to raise awareness of the disease and funds for prostate cancer research, has raised approximately $400,000US for the cause so far.

"He kept fighting and never gave in," Vinecki says of her dad, Michael Vinecki, who died at age 40. “I am just out there doing what I need to do for the 1 in 6 men in the world who have prostate cancer.” Vinecki is expected to cross the Athens finish line while raising her arm and pointing in the air -- a gesture Vinecki says she likes to make over every finish line she crosses – as a salutation to her father in the sky.

Vinecki has completed marathons in the United States, Kenya, Antarctica, Mongolia, Peru and New Zealand.  She placed second or third women overall in four of the marathons and won the women’s division outright at the grueling Inca Trail Marathon to Machu Picchu in Peru.

 

Last March Vinecki became the youngest person to finish a marathon on Antarctica, the coldest, windiest most formidable continent on earth.

Gilligan created the Seven Continents Club in 1998 to recognize those who have finished marathons on all seven continents. Since then, 489 globetrotting runners have achieved the goal.

An ace student at Stanford University’s prestigious online high school and two-time Ironkids triathlon US champion, Vinecki is also a member of the Fly Elite aerials ski team as a 2018 Olympic hopeful.

Vinecki and her mother, Dr. Dawn Estelle who is also running the Athens Classic Marathon, will be the first mother-daughter team to finish marathons on all seven continents