#19 - Summer 2005

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They might be near -- or past -- retirement age, but these Olympians aren't about to stop

AUSTIN’S AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, August 29, 2005
Ruth Seeger looks like a white-haired warrior as she heaves a javelin across the football field at the Texas School for the Deaf. Before this hour-long session is complete, the 81-year-old athlete also will put a shot in the air and heave a discus downfield.
Sara Sievert, only 80, is good in those events as well. But she also swims and plays basketball -- competitively.
Marion Coffee-Carney didn't start running seriously until she was in her 40s. She's 67 now and specializing in 200 and 400 meter track events.
These three local women are warming up for the Texas Senior Olympic Finals, taking place for the first time in Austin from Sept. 24 through Oct. 2.
Nearly 3,000 athletes from around the state are expected to converge here for the games. Among them? A 104-year-old bowler from Bryan. A 95-year-old golfer from Houston. A 93-year-old swimmer and track athlete from San Antonio. "A lot of these athletes are the best in Texas; a lot are the best in the United States," says Hector Ward of the Senior Wellness Alliance, organizer of the Austin event. "It's very inspirational."
The Senior Olympics were first held in St. Louis in 1987. At the state finals in Austin next month, athletes will be competing in 29 events, from standards such as cycling, tennis, triathlon, basketball and powerlifting, to pseudo sports such as horseshoes, washers, billiards and Texas hold 'em poker.
There's still time to sign up. To participate, athletes must be 50 or older by the end of the year. (The average age of competitors is 62.) Registration closes Thursday, but if you're local, you don't have to prequalify. Anyone from Travis, Hays, Williamson, Caldwell, Burnet, Bastrop, Blanco and Lee counties can compete. Those in outlying counties must prequalify through competitions in other cities.
Austin will host the state finals in 2006 as well. "We're trying to make them the biggest and baddest in the United States," Ward says.
For some competitors, the term "senior" seems a little premature. Austin attorney Becky Beaver, 53, and her basketball team won gold in the 50-54 year age group at last year's Texas Senior Olympic Finals in Temple. They even advanced to national competition this June, but were eliminated by a Tennessee team.
For Beaver, just watching women in their 80s dribble up and down the court made the trip worth it. "That's exactly where we all want to be 30 years from now," she says. The games draw all types who love testing their physical mettle against others their age. "They don't want to be sitting on the Lazy Boy -- they would rather have their grandchildren cheering them on," Ward says. "It brings back the competitive juices. They feel good about themselves, they feel better for being healthy and active and training."
pleblanc@statesman.com; 445-3994

The strong presence of Ruth Seeger
Don't be surprised if Ruth Seeger adds to her haul of 304 medals when she takes the field at the Texas Senior Olympic Finals next month.
She just racked up five medals, including three golds, at the 2005 Summer National Senior Games in Pittsburgh. In the process, she set a national record for her age group in javelin, recording a 50 foot, 8 inch throw. She'll be competing in the same five events -- javelin, shot put, discus, long jump and high jump -- at the state finals in Austin.
Seeger grew up idolizing track star and golfer Babe Didrickson. "I wanted to be just like her. I'm still trying to be like her," Seeger, who is deaf, said through an interpreter during a recent track workout.
Her curly white hair and slim frame belie her strength. Her handshake is nearly crushing. She tosses a shot put as if it were no heavier than a softball, then throws her hands up in mock disgust at the result, saying she's out of shape. She hasn't been able to practice much recently because her husband has been ill. His support, she says, has allowed her to excel.
For now, the high jump is her most challenging event. "I used to be really good at it, but oftentimes there's no place to practice," she says.
Seeger taught physical education and coached track at the Texas School for the Deaf for 36 years, starting in 1949. Today, a gymnasium on the campus is named for her. She started the first women's track team at the school in 1963 and later formed volleyball and softball teams there. Her students accumulated a total of 33 medals at the World Games for the Deaf, and Seeger was the U.S. women's track coach for the games in 1965, 1969, 1973, 1977 and 1985. She was inducted into the Texas Senior Olympics Hall of Fame in 1998.

The versatility of Sara Sievert
The many playing fields of Sara Sievert From the looks of things, Sara Sievert can't settle on a single sport. So she does nearly all of them, from swimming and field events to basketball, horseshoes, washers and, until her knee gave out a few years ago, track.
Sievert, 80, who has been participating in the games for 10 years, will be inducted into the Texas Senior Olympic Hall of Fame this year. Her best events are discus, javelin and shot put.
"I've always been an athlete," the Round Rock woman says. "I like doing things, I've always been active. My big thing is if I ever stop, that'll be it."
In 2001, she was captain of a 75-plus three-on-three basketball team from Texas that won gold at the national senior games in Baton Rouge, La. "That was the biggest thrill," she says. Now that those teammates are in their late 80s, they've quit playing.
At the 2003 nationals in Virginia, she finished in the top 20 in two swimming events and fifth in horseshoes. She was named best female athlete at the 2004 Austin Senior Olympics. At the state finals in Austin, Sievert will compete in horseshoes, washers, javelin, shot put, discus, swimming and free throw and around the world basketball skills.
And talk about family rivalry. Sievert's husband Guy Sievert, 84, also competes in discus, javelin, shot put, washers, horseshoes and bocce ball.

The competitive spirit of Marion Coffee-Carney
Marion Coffee-Carney will charge around the track in the 200 and 400 meters at this year's Texas Senior Olympic Finals.
"I'd like to win both of them," she says. If history holds, the 67-year-old athlete has a good shot of doing just that. She'll also be inducted into the Texas Senior Olympic Hall of Fame this year.
Coffee-Carney didn't start competing until her late 40s, when she entered a series of local 5- and 10-kilometer runs. She placed in many of the races, but never won. After signing up for a training class to improve her times, she realized she should focus on sprint distances. Unlike many of her long-distance counterparts, she actually liked wind sprints.
"We were not allowed to do sports as girls before Title IX," she says. "It's something I always wanted to do, but didn't have opportunity."
At 50, she began competing in the Senior Olympics. Since then she's been collecting awards. At the national games in 1995, she placed third in the 100 meters, sixth in the 400 meters and seventh in the 200 meters. (She's currently ranked sixth in the nation in her age group in the 400.) Even cancer couldn't hold her back. Doctors discovered endrometrial cancer in 1997, but she made a full recovery. "I really enjoy exercise and I really am competitive," the powerfully petite athlete says. "Probably as a kid I would have gone out for every sport. I just really like to do physical things. It helps me with goals."
Today her routine includes lifting weights twice a week, running with the Waterloo Masters Track and Field Club once a week, running with a friend twice a week and training with her cousin, who is a track coach in Jarrell, once a week.