If you've noticed more seniors walking or jogging around their community, frequenting the health spas or hitting practice balls at the golf driving ranges, it's a good bet they're getting ready for this fall's Senior Olympics. Games begin on September 24 and continue through October 9.

No great athletic skill is required to participate in many of the thirty sports offered. To help you understand what Senior Olympics is all about try to imagine yourself at the International Olympics standing on the podium while they play the National Anthem honoring your gold medal victory? I've watched closely the look on the faces of those young athletes who, at that moment, are bursting with pride and joy, and fighting, often not too successfully, to hold back their emotions. Well I have imagined myself standing there. And even though I know I don't have the ability nor the opportunity to ever achieve that experience, I still
fantasize being there.

My first gold medal at Senior Olympics is a clear memory. The sport was pistol shoot and I had out gunned two other shooters in my age group. When my gold medal was placed around my neck I fought to maintain my macho image by acting nonchalant because, after all, it wasn't really that big a deal. But inside I was bursting with pride and anxious to get home and show off my prize. That first gold medal is now in a frame, alongside a silver and a bronze I won the first year I competed in Senior Olympics. I am not a very athletic person, but the occasion gave me the opportunity to experience a bit of the thrill of victory. 
Every senior that participates in the Nevada Senior Olympics has the opportunity to come down out of the stands and enter the arena. Perhaps the performance won't qualify for the International Olympics, but in each one's own world, it can offer that special thrill and provide that same pride of achievement. 

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You can contact Nevada Senior Games without obligation in several ways:
Call 702-242-1590, send a fax to 702-242-3919, send an e-mail to
nevadaseniorgames@earthlink.net or look us up on the internet:
www.nevadaseniorolympics.com.