THE WORLD Veterans
Championships is the closest an older runner can come to competing in the
Olympic Games. Landing in Eugene in 1989, it was the closest an “Olympics” for
elders would ever come to my home.
This was the greatest meet
I’d ever seen, and I had seen a lot in 25 years of covering this sport. The
size and spirit of this event moved me as no other had, including three actual
Olympics.
Competition for veterans –
or masters, as older runners are known in the U.S. – was still a young movement
in 1989. These championships, which came to this country for the first time,
were only 14 years old.
Like a child of that age,
vets running was both growing and maturing quickly. We were just beginning to
see what its adult identity might be.
In its short life, this
arena had already produced three generations of winners. First came the new and
renewed athletes who hadn’t competed since their youth (if then), started
training for fitness in middle age and couldn’t stop with that. They created
the first demand for separate veterans meets, and won most of the early prizes.
The new opportunities gave
long-time runners in their 30s a new reason to continue. Soon a second
generation of winning vets was born – formerly near-great athletes who won by
outlasting the people who had outrun them in their youth.
Now a third generation was
emerging – superstars who remained competitive until they reached vet status.
The quality of competition had improved vastly because of them.
So had the quantity of
competitors. The WVC had more than tripled in size, to almost 6000 entrants,
since its first edition in Toronto.
But while growing bigger
and better, these championships hadn’t forgotten their original purpose – to
serve the athletes, not the interests of nations or fans. Vets entered the
Worlds as individuals, not as national teams, and the athletes paid for their
own trips.
This meet made room for
anyone who wanted to compete, no matter how unwieldy the program grew. No one
was turned away because of advanced age, lack of ability or overcrowded fields.
Officials simply added more age-groups and races as demand warranted.
The medal-winners,
record-setters and superstars weren’t the big news here. The top story
concerned all these people who came to Oregon to compete – not to win, in most
cases, but to do whatever their abilities would allow.
As the World Veterans
Championships have grown, they’ve stayed true to the original Olympic ideal.
The glory of World Vets isn’t reserved for the athletes who place first but extends
to everyone who takes part.
Mr. Olympics himself,
four-time discus gold medalist Al Oerter competed in Eugene. He said later, “I
truly enjoyed it. This is what the Baron [de Coubertin] had in mind when he
started the Olympics way back when.
“This is more like the
Olympics than the Olympics. It’s the spirit of participation.”
One of the most emotional
moments I’ve experience in sports came during opening ceremonies for the World
Veterans Championships. I stood in a packed stadium as thousands of athletes
marched in an Olympic-style parade.
“These are the elite of
the planet,” commented my partner Barbara. She wasn’t speaking in athletic
terms. “These people came from all over the world and have lived through wars,
and in some cases fought them against each other,” she said. “They have lived
through depressions and now have prospered well enough to pay their own way
here.”
They also have been lucky
enough to avoid disabling accident and disease, or strong enough to overcome
them. These are the world’s best strivers and survivors.
Photo: “Mr.
Olympics,” four-time gold medalist Al Oerter, remained competitive in his
masters years.
[Many books of mine, old
and recent, are now available in two different formats: in print and as ebooks
from Amazon.com. The titles: Going Far, Home
Runs, Joe’s Team, Learning to Walk, Long Run Solution, Long Slow
Distance, Miles to Go, Pacesetters, Run Right Now, Run Right Now Training Log, See How We
Run, and Starting Lines, plus Rich Englehart’s book about me, Slow Joe.]
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