Tag: aging athletes

fitness · Olympics

A Salute to Older Olympic Athletes

Diane Harper1 Comment

Now that the Olympics have ended, I’m looking back and reflecting on the women in their 40s and 50s who competed. There may be more. Every one of them did amazing things over their careers, not just at the Olympics.

Clockwise from top left: Claudia Riegler (Olympics.com), Deanna Stelatto-Dudek (Skate Canada); Lindsey Vonn (Getty Images); Elana Meyers Taylor (Aijaz Rahi – AP); Kailee Humphries (https://www.self.com/story/kaillie-humphries); Sarah Schleper (The Aspen Times)

Claudia Riegler, 52, Austrian snowboarder in her 5th Olympics. She has never won an Olympic medal, but has captured three medals at world championships. She is the oldest woman to compete at any Winter Olympics.

Deanna Stellato-Dudek 42, Canadian pairs figure skater in her 1st Olympics. She originally competed as an individual skater but retired in 2001. She returned to competition in 2016 as a pairs skater for the USA. In 2019, she began skating with her Canadian partner and began the process of seeking Canadian citizenship so that she could compete at Milano-Cortina. Just days before the Olympics began, she was injured in training and was only cleared to compete a few days before their event. Despite that, the pair placed 11th overall.

Lindsey Vonn, 41, American alpine skier in her 5th Olympics. The three-time Olympic medalist crashed and broke her leg in Milano-Cortina.

Elana Meyers Taylor 41, American bobsledder in her 5th Olympics. She has previously won 5 Olympic medals and just won her first gold. She has now taken over the title as the oldest individual gold medalist in Winter Olympic history. She also extended her streak as the most-decorated Black athlete in the winter games.

Kaillie Humphries 40, Canadian-American bobsledder in her 6th Olympics. Humphries competed for Canada 2010-2014 before switching to the US team. She has won 6 Olympic medals, including two Bronze in Milano-Cortina.

Sarah Schleper 46, Mexican-American alpine skier in her 7th Olympics and part of the first mother-son Olympic duo with her 18 year old son. Schleper competed for the USA team 1998-2010, and for Mexico since 2018.

Just for fun, I’m adding Midori Ito, 56, Japanese singles figure skater. Ito won silver at the 1992 Olympics, landing the first triple Axel in competition, and was the first woman to land seven triples (at the Calgary Olympics in 1988). Although her Wikipedia page says she retired in 1992, she is still skating and won at the Master’s Elite level in 2024 – and clearly is still enjoying herself.

competition · fitness · Guest Post

I am a curler: ‘A What?’, you ask?

Julie McMullin8 Comments

I am a curler, and I’ve been curling since I was 12 years old. Some of you may know my sport. Others may be wondering about what it is or have a vague idea that it is an Olympic sport played on ice. In our household, when we ask Alexa what its favourite sport is, the reply is this; “Curling is my kind of game, it’s like chess on ice, if chess was played with tiny brooms”. As scary as it is that Alexa responds to us this way, we have often referred to the strategy involved in curling as, ‘chess on ice’. Good curlers think three to four moves in advance as they plan their play. Curling brooms aren’t that tiny though. They are about four feet-long, they are made of a light durable material with a fabric bottom that is used to brush the ice surface. Curling is a difficult game to explain, and I can’t do it justice here. If you want to learn more, check out the World Curling Federation’s 2-minute guide to curling.

            One member of the team directs the play, a second throws the curling stone, and the remaining two members of the team sweep. Photo credit: Robert Davies

Since 1988, when curling was a demonstration sport at the Calgary Olympics, it has been the brunt of jokes. Late-night television hosts and comedians seem to get a big kick out of it (see Ellen Degeneres, James Corden, Stephen Colbert, and Rick Mercer to name a few). It has made appearances on The Simpsons, The Little Mosque on the Prairie, and in several movies (e.g., Help) and songs (e.g., The Weakerthans’ Tournament of Hearts). In the best-case scenario, my sport is depicted as a novelty, but in most cases, it’s seen as a bit of a joke. Just last week, Saturday Night Live made fun of curling after NBC pulled their broadcasting of the International Olympic Qualifying tournament because it had a sex toy company as one of its leading sponsors. This is a story so interesting that it deserves its own post!

Am I offended by these jokes? Not really. Whenever curling gets mentioned or when I see images related to curling, I get excited because it means that my sport is no longer ignored. But it is odd to be an athlete who plays a sport that most folks either don’t know about or don’t take very seriously. Yet, the fitness, agility, strength, precision, and mental resilience required to curl should not be discounted. My family and I have taught a lot of athletes from other sports how to curl, and without exception they say “this is harder than it looks”. A few former NFL players decided to get a team together so that they could represent the United States at the Olympics in curling. That didn’t go so well.

Images of curling rocks used to identify physical distancing in Vancouver.

My Nova Scotian curling team recently competed at the Canadian Senior (aged 50 and over) Women’s Curling Championships. As an aside, the title sponsor for this event is a funeral concierge service, which makes most of us laugh. We played 12 games (each game lasts about 2 hours) over 6 days and finished with a bronze medal. Bronze medal games are tough but I’m proud that my team hung in there. On our way home, we arrived at the Toronto Airport and of all days, the escalator to get to our gate was broken. Ouch!, is all I have to say about that.

Team Nova Scotia after winning bronze at the Canadian Senior Women’s curling championship. Four very happy women! Photo Credit: Curling Canada

I am an old (er), competitive curler, and I love my sport. My relationship with curling has changed over the years but my identity as a curler has not. I’m becoming very interested in how athletes age within a sport and how this relates to their identity. But more on that another time.