[1] In March the following year, he became the fastest American 15-year-old swimmer in history in the long course 100-meter freestyle with a time of 50.24 seconds at the 2022 Piranhas Senior Invitational in Florida.

[7][10][11][12][13] The following, and final, day, he tied fellow American Diggory Dillingham for the silver medal in the 50-meter freestyle with a personal best time of 22.50 seconds.

[7] Leading up to the year's U.S. Open, Winkler competed at the 2022 Florida 1A High School State Championships in Stuart, Florida, where he won the 100-yard freestyle with a National Age Group record time of 42.52 seconds for the boys 15–16 age group on November 18, which was 0.15 seconds faster than the former record by Ryan Hoffer in 2014.

[2][3] At the 2022 U.S. Open Swimming Championships, held in November and December in Greensboro, North Carolina, Winkler tied for nineteenth-place in the 50-meter freestyle on day two with a time of 22.97 seconds, which qualified him for the c-final.

[21] For his final event, the 100-meter freestyle on day four, he ranked seventh in the preliminary heats and qualified for the a-final with a time of 49.56 seconds.

[23] Later in December, at the 2022 Winter Junior US National Championships, Winkler finished in a personal best time of 19.70 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle to place fourth at the East edition of the meet.

[24] In the morning preliminaries on the fourth and final day, he swam a personal best time and new boys 15–16 National Age Group record of 42.21 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle to qualify for the final ranking first, his time broke the record he set in the event less than one month earlier at 42.52 seconds.