Too Old to Compete? Don’t Tell These Athletes

Left: Rita Price, 81, and Herb Delaney, 82, of Denver. Right: Vivian Stancil, 56, a blind swimmer from California. Photo by Veronika Lukasova

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Vivian Stancil of Riverside, Calif., is 61 years old and blind, but that doesn’t stop her from swimming in national competitions. She’s in the pool twice a day for 90 minutes and has lost more than 135 pounds since she started swimming at age 50.

Johnie Howard is 82 and plays tennis competitively with some of the best players in his age group. Howard and his 78-year-old wife, Dee, live in North Carolina and Florida and have been playing tennis together since they married in 1995. He says he plans on playing “as long as I’m physically able.”

Stancil and the Howards are among the thousands of older Americans who participate in the Summer National Senior Games, better known as the Senior Olympics, which are held every two years. Athletes age 50 and older of all levels of experience first go head to head in regional and state competitions (see schedule of state senior games). The winners continue to compete nationally in more than 800 individual and team sports. The next Senior Olympics  is set for Aug. 1-15, 2009, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Stancil has participated in four national Senior Olympic swimming competitions. Because she is blind, her husband, Turner, moves alongside the pool and bangs on a tambourine to help Stancil know her whereabouts in the water. “When she would hear that she knew she was being applauded, and she knew she was coming to the end of the pool,” he says.

“One thing about [athletes competing in] the Senior Olympics is that we tend to know how each other feels because we have similar medical problems,” Stancil says. “We know how to encourage each other. It’s not so much that ‘I’m better than you’ or ‘you’re better than me,’ we’re all at the same level.” The exercise works for Stancil. “I feel much happier,” she says.

Dee Howard is as much of a tennis enthusiast as her husband—the couple has competed in mixed double matches in the past four National Senior Games. “It was wonderful,” Dee says of their experience at the 2007 games. “We like meeting the people, and it’s well organized.”

Johnie won the gold in the singles competition for the 80-84 age category last year. “I’ve enjoyed it very much; I’m very competitive,” he says. “When I go out there I give it my best shot.”

According to the American Heart Association, regular exercise becomes more necessary as a person ages. And the statistics for older people who stay active show that consistent physical activity helps prevent bone loss and reduces the occurrence of hypertension, coronary heart disease, colon cancer and other diseases common to aging adults.

For Johnie, playing tennis has an additional benefit. “I think it keeps me young,” he says. His wife agrees: “He’s more like a 65-year-old than he is 82.”