Women Just Like Us

I turned another year older this week.  Yahoo! Firmly planted in my seventh decade and feeling good (most of the time)! In that vein, I'd like to point out several women, who in their retirement years decided to take up a sport. I agree, this isn't that unusual, as not only do we have more time but time for new interests, and these women became extraordinary in their pursuits.

Bobbe Greenberg, at age 57, entered a mini triathlon at her gym. It consisted of a 10 minute pool swim, a 20 minute stationary bike ride and a 15 minute treadmill run. Only problem, Bobbe did not know how to swim. She took a weekend swim course and has never looked back.

Bobbe's debut outdoor triathlon resulted in a first place medal. She was 20 years older than the second-place winner. She's been hooked ever since. She has entered 14 full triathlon competitions and has won/qualified 9 times! In October of 2019, Bobbe won her second Ironman Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii, at 73 years of age. This entails a 2.4 mile swim in choppy ocean waters, a 112 mile bike ride and a marathon (26.2 mile run). Simply amazing.

At 59 years old, Mimi Secor was a busy nurse practitioner thinking about going back to graduate school, when her daughter, a health coach told her she was not a healthy role model for her patients and was being a hypocrite. That stunned her into allowing her daughter to develop a plan to begin weight lifting and clean up her diet.

After one year of hitting the gym and eating healthily, Mimi has dropped 30 pounds and 12 inches from her waist plus built a lot of muscle. Enough muscle to begin competing in bodybuilding championships - all the while pursuing a rigorous doctoral program. After competing and placing fifth in her age category, Dr. Mimi fell in love with the sport and now at age 64 has competed in three more competitions and written a book about her experiences.

When Olga Kotelko retired from teaching and after raising two daughters, she took up coed softball at age 64. She played that sport until she was 77 years old when she decided it was safer, after a collision with a man twice her size, to enter the world of Track and Field. The switch was easy for Olga, as she developed skills in throwing and running from her softball days.

Olga's first event was in the UK where she set her first record. In the following 18 years she won 750 gold medals and set 37 world records in the 100-meter dash, long jumps and hammer throw. Olga continued to break records, including her own. She competed in this sport until her death at age 95.

Olga proved that one could live to a healthy older age if one is willing to be physically and mentally active in later years.

I love this quote from one of tennis's greatest, Martina Navratilova: "The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed".

Being all in is the key to making anything happen. Are you the chicken or the pig?

This post was written before the crash that killed one of our greatest athletes; Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna and 7 others. My prayers and condolences are with their families. May they rest in peace.

xo