Word: seniorities
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What are the limitations of a senior athlete? Ligaments and tendons lose some of their fluid content and become less flexible with age. Muscles in older people don't use sugar as well, so the ability to respond with a burst of activity declines...
Even so, better fed and more scientifically conditioned than any previous generation, today's senior athletes are stretching their bodies' performance beyond what was once thought possible. Some are even winning phantom races against young champions of the past, swimming and running faster, jumping higher and farther than Olympic medal winners in their prime early in the century. One bettered Johnny Weissmuller, who went on to become Hollywood's most famous Tarzan (see chart...
...number of Senior Olympics competitors were high school and college All-Americans a generation or two ago. But many others are no more than moderately talented late bloomers. A fierce competitive spirit drives some. Others are attracted to the Games largely because of the camaraderie or as a way of keeping life fresh and exhilarating: "Because there's always an event coming up," says swimmer Bob Bailie, 64, of The Woodlands, Texas, "a senior athlete always has a date with the future." Here are the stories of five of them...
Luckily for ordinary competitors with ambitions to win, relatively few former Olympians or other world-class athletes appear at the Senior Games. Perhaps they don't want to smudge the public memory of their heroic youth. Phil Mulkey, 66, is an exception--a former Olympian who will compete in the Games who has an additional explanation for the absence of other stars of long ago. "Part of the reason may be that they are just worn out," he says. The ordeals of a young superathlete's training and competition have an aftermath. "I can tell you that my bones...
...prepare for the Senior Games, Mulkey sprints daily along the streets of Marietta, Ga., outside Atlanta, and pole vaults an average of three times a week. He then downs a breakfast that would turn a health faddist ashen: scrambled eggs, sausage and biscuits and two hotcakes at a local fast-food spot. Vitamins B and C are the only supplements he takes...