Athletes Ready to Go for the Gold at Senior Games BY FLORIDA SPORTS FOUNDATION AND NICK GANDY
T
he Senior Games are back, and local athletes have been working tirelessly to train and qualify for the upcoming State Championships. The Senior Games invite anyone age 50 or older to compete in a range of sports from bowling, bag toss and shuffleboard to power lifting, track and field, racing and more. The goal of the Senior Games is to promote healthy, active lifestyles for participants over 50, and to establish a multi-sport festival that is open for all to compete with their peers at local, state and national levels. The program first started in Florida and has been around since 1974, when the Golden Age Games were created in Sanford. Soon after, local and state Senior Games events began appearing nationwide. The 2013 National Senior Games were held this summer in
Cleveland, Ohio, where 568 Florida athletes had a chance to compete. This year’s state championships will be held in Lee County from Dec. 7 – 15. Every Olympic year, the Florida Senior Games State Championships serves as a qualifier for the National Senior Games held every non-Olympic year. Local Athletes A regular competitor in the Games is 92-year-old Edith Traina. Besides powerlifting, Traina will be in shuffleboard, bag toss, billiards and darts events, according to Tampa Bay Senior Games Director Mary Clements Fowler. Traina set a Florida Masters Powerlifting record at the 2012 Florida International Senior Games &
State Championships (pictured left) and has set new goals for the Tampa Bay Senior Games: a 115-pound dead lift and a 65-pound bench press. Wesley Chapel’s Otis Perry (at right with family) will participate in twelve events. The first on his list was the 1-mile walk in October, and he continues with table tennis, darts, billiards, horseshoes, dominoes, basketball
shooting and bag toss. In the track and field events he will do the long jump, shot put and discus. Besides showing his athletic prowess, the former school administrator and athletic director is showing off his cooking talents in the baking contest. He plans to make a Pineapple Upside Down Cake with Louisiana pecans. Perry won a gold medal in the powerlifting 70 –74 age group in 2012 with an 80-pound bench press and 115-pound deadlift. To learn more about the Senior Games and upcoming events in your area, visit www.flasports.com/ and click on the “Senior Games” tab.
Lifestyles After 50 • November 2013 • page 9