Photo courtesy of Nancy Nash.

Three Haines athletes are among thirty Alaskans headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico to compete in a The National Senior Games. Connie Ward and Nancy Nash will challenge other athletes fifty years and older in what are arguably the most gladiatorial track events: shot put, sprint, discus, and javelin. As KHNS  reports, the golden years are no time to slow down for these women—they’re a time to bring home gold medals.

Nancy Nash stands with her back to the shot put field, counts off three paces from the toe board, and raises the shot—a 6 pound metal ball—up under her chin. She bends her left knee slightly in a pose like Roman statue. Then she steps, pivots, and turns, thrusting the shot through the air with a mighty heave. It lands with a leaden thump nearly 20 feet away in the gravel. Her training partner and fellow athlete Connie Ward marks the place with an orange stake.

Nash is practicing for the National Senior Games, known as the Senior Olympics. Her events are sprint and shot put.

“I said to my son who called me for Mother’s Day, ‘I think there’s not that many women sprinting at my age.’ And he goes, ‘Mom, I think there’s even fewer doing shot put at your age!” she said laughed.

The Senior Olympics is the largest multi sport event in the world for seniors. These competitors are flipping the script on popular conceptions of what an athlete can be.

“This society is hard wired to pass along misconceptions, biased thinking, and downright untruthful assumptions,” said Del Moon, the communications manager for the National Senior Games Association.

The goal of the association is to motivate active seniors and encourage greater health through sports. You can’t just sign up for the Senior Olympics, you have to qualify by placing first or second at state Championships.

What Moon calls “biased thinking,” says that as you age you slow down. He says the Senior Games are an example of just how off base that assumption can be.

“When you see whole families wearing shirts that say ‘Go grandma’… That’s the kind of thing we want to put in front of people to say “You’ve gotta rethink what you thought aging was because you’re short-changing yourself.'” he said.

Moon says this is the biggest National Senior  Games since their inception in the 1980s. This year nearly 14,000 people will compete in 20 events. Badminton, bocci ball, horseshoes, pickle ball, and archery, just to name a few.

Nash went through school before Title 9—the landmark gender equity legislation that meant schools had to offer equal sports opportunities for boys and girls. There were no sports teams for girls at her high school, but the father of a fellow student formed a small track league and coached the girls outside of school. So Nash has experience, albeit long-ago experience, as a competitor.

“This was in ’65 I think. That I learned to shot put and sprint and that’s what I’m doing [at the National Senior Games],” she said.

“And it came right back to me! I was pretty sure I could sprint at my age. So I trained. I wouldn’t do it without training, but yeah, I’m ready!”

Connie Ward was in school after Title 9 and still holds records there. She throws shot put, discus and javelin, and lately she has extra motivation.

“I like it because it shows to my kids your mom still has it,” she said with a smile.

This year’s Senior Games will be a first national competition for both women. Maryann Carlson will also represent Haines—and Alaska. She wasn’t at the field because her event is swimming. At Alaska state championships she set a record for her age group in the 50 free. Ward is taking on shot put, discus and javelin.

It was a brilliant day at the Haines High School track field. Ward glowed with exertion in the evening light as she launched a discus over seventy feet, breaking a personal record.

“Seventy-two feet, three inches!” yelled Nash, waving the measuring tape.

“Wait, I gotta write that down. At my age I forget a lot!”

Nash rolled up the huge tape measure she used to log Ward’s throws. Some high schoolers had already left the track for the night, but Ward and Nash had javelins to hurl…and then a couple more rounds of shot put practice.