Sports Give Seniors a Zest for Life
It was the last game of the three-day ultimate Masters national championship in Denver last summer. Wayne Tang, a 55-year-old attorney in Chicago, looked around at his teammates, many of whom he had known for 15 or 20 years. Somehow, they had managed to keep playing Frisbee through the pandemic, maintaining their social connections and their fitness. “This was literally the only [extended period of ] time I could think of over the last few years that I was able to spend with a bunch of old friends doing something we all loved,” Tang recalls. “Time with your peers is a very limited commodity as you get older.”
Tang is one of tens of thousands of older athletes who are ramping up their commitment to sports and fitness as they age. Besides the physical and mental health benefits of exercise, these seniors also tout the relationships, sense of belonging and camaraderie associated with playing sports. For example, the biennial National Senior Games draw about 14,000 competitors, ages 50 to 100, in the largest qualified multisport competition, formerly known as the Senior Olympics. Participants compete at events around the country.
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