{"id":6489,"date":"2017-08-27T15:22:51","date_gmt":"2017-08-27T19:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=6489"},"modified":"2017-08-27T15:27:20","modified_gmt":"2017-08-27T19:27:20","slug":"impossible-dreamers-winning-gold-medals-at-73","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=6489","title":{"rendered":"Impossible Dreamers: Winning Gold Medals at 73"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>Daniela Barnea, who is 73, typically swims for up to an hour and a half, seven days a week. At her age, that kind of workout, during which she covers nearly two miles, is noteworthy.<\/p>\n

Even more so is the fact that Ms. Barnea, who lives in Palo Alto, Calif., is a record-breaking swimmer and senior athlete who competes in sanctioned races for her age group in events around the world.<\/p>\n

At the 2017 United States Masters Swimming Spring Nationals, in Riverside, Calif., she won three gold medals in the women\u2019s 70-to-74-year-old age group. These included the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke finals and the 200-yard individual medley finals.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of senior athletes like Ms. Barnea compete regularly in athletic events throughout the world, including the\u00a0National Senior Games Association<\/a>, United States\u00a0Masters Swimming<\/a>and\u00a0USA Track & Field Masters<\/a>\u00a0programs. Races are divided into five-year age increments starting at age 35 and ending at 100-to-104. Generally, the athletes range in age from 50 to 100.<\/p>\n

A recent documentary, \u201cImpossible Dreamers<\/a>,\u201d produced by Eric Goldfarb and Erik Howell through Better World Film Group, follows senior athletes who are amateurs as they train for competition. In addition to Ms. Barnea, the 75-minute film (which can be viewed on Netflix and Amazon) spotlights a 91-year-old tennis player, octogenarian racewalkers and septuagenarian sprinters, weight lifters and boxers.<\/p>\n

Read on The New York Times: Retiring Column<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ms. Barnea is among the youngest featured in the movie. Donald Cheek, known as Doc, a resident of Clovis, Calif., is an international gold medal Masters sprinter at 87. Mr. Cheek repeatedly wins in the 85-to-89 division, competing in the 50-, 100-, 200- and 400-meter events. Last October, in the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah, he set the games\u2019 record for 100 meters at 17.38.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0Gary Player, the 81-year-old retired professional golfer, also appears in the movie, to offer fitness tips in a 20-minute boot camp workout that is included in the documentary. That instruction is geared toward amateur athletes of all ages who yearn to stay active and, perhaps, to compete.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ms. Barnea\u2019s latest athletic challenge is the 17th\u00a0FINA<\/a>\u00a0World Masters Championships in Budapest this month. To prepare, she swims double workouts and hits the gym three or four times a week. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be another Mark Spitz or Michael Phelps,\u201d Ms. Barnea said. \u201cI just want to be first.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She schedules her workouts around the time she spends with her three grandchildren and her part-time job as a foreign language tutor for the Palo Alto Unified School District.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201ckind of boring swimming back and forth, back and forth, but when you have a goal, it\u2019s not,\u201d Ms. Barnea said. \u201cIt\u2019s like meditation to me. It\u2019s very peaceful. There is something very soothing about being surrounded by water.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many older people, though, exercising can be a challenge. That\u2019s why the producers of \u201cImpossible Dreamers\u201d decided to give viewers workout tips.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t want viewers to feel inspired by the film and then go back to their regular habits the next day,\u201d said Eric Goldfarb, the filmmaker. \u201cWe caught up with several of the athletes after the film\u2019s production to get their demonstrations on safe exercises for older adults; different movements that are simple, maximizing bodily benefits and fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The message, Mr. Goldfarb said, is that \u201cno matter where you are in your life, you do what you can\u201d with regard to fitness.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou exercise as much as you can without going beyond what your body is able to do,\u201d he said. \u201cThe athletes in this film are not superheroes. They are all plagued with injury and real-life circumstance that happens to everybody, and they get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few years ago, Ms. Barnea had abdominal surgery and needed to rebuild her swimming regimen slowly. \u201cI could barely swim across the width of pool, but every day I added a few laps, and got stronger and stronger,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A rotator cuff injury sustained in a dog-walking mishap, when she was pulled abruptly toward a neighbor\u2019s cat, still makes her wince and prevents her from competing in the butterfly, one of her signature events.<\/p>\n

But she keeps on stroking. This year, she will enter an estimated 20 competitions. \u201cYou need to trust yourself, trust the hopes and not the fears, and keep going around the obstacles,\u201d Ms. Barnea said.<\/p>\n

Ursula M. Staudinger<\/a>, a life span psychologist and researcher at the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University, said that exercising in older age is crucial to physical and mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur bodies are made for being used,\u201d she said. \u201cPhysical fitness and activity improves brain function. Anyone who is keeping up physical activity \u2014 both the aerobic part, which is really important, and the strength and balance and flexibility \u2014 is reducing the risks and buffering the decline that is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Mr. Cheek, the nation\u2019s fastest 100-meter sprinter in his age group, there is \u201ca pride and a mental discipline that carries over into your whole lifestyle,\u201d he said. Consistent exercise, said Mr. Cheek, who is a part-time professor of social psychology at California State University, Fresno, allows you to have \u201ca body that can perform for you any time you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mr. Cheek, who grew up in Harlem and earned a Ph.D. from Temple University, has been running track since his days at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx. \u201cThe track represents freedom to me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a very clear measurement of what I am. It tells me I have guts, character, that I have what it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>In the \u201cImpossible Dreamers\u201d boot camp video, these senior athletes provide their best advice on how to keep athletes with less lofty ambitions fit.<\/p>\n

Mr. Cheek, for example, starts his routine with a variety of relaxed stretches. He and his wife, Patti, are shown lying in bed wearing workout clothes; they lift their legs in the air, curl their toes and spin their ankles in each direction.<\/p>\n

Mr. Cheek is also shown skipping with his grandchildren; he recommends two minutes of skipping. \u201cThis develops a certain rhythm for your body,\u201d he said. \u201cSkipping is what children do, and it\u2019s fun. It makes you smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Mr. Cheek moves on to high-step skipping, with the emphasis on lifting his knees. He also recommends standing in place and moving your feet as fast as you can. \u201cDo it rhythmically, and move your arms as fast as you can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the documentary, Mr. Player is shown pacing on a treadmill, lifting light weights, doing situps and running rapidly in small steps. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to keep the body moving like a piece of elastic,\u201d he says in the film.<\/p>\n

These exercises help keep him performing well on the golf course. \u201cAll you need is 10 minutes on the treadmill every day,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

For these seasoned athletes, there\u2019s seemingly no fear of getting older. \u201cPeople usually don\u2019t want to tell their age, but not me,\u201d Ms. Barnea said. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to tell them I am moving up to my next age group for competing. I can break new records when I\u2019m the youngest one in the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

By\u00a0KERRY HANNON<\/span>\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n