The Long Run October 2023
“What’s Next” Episode Spotlights National Senior Games Athletes
Spotted: National Senior Games athletes in the limelight!
Growing Bolder, the NSGA’s Official Media Partner, recently aired a special episode of their “What’s Next” television series sharing exciting moments from the 2023 National Senior Games presented by Humana.
Watch interviews with multiple athletes and commentary from Growing Bolder hosts in the inspiration-packed show.
Athlete of the Month
“I Was Never Alone”: Softball Team Bolsters Player Through Breast Cancer Journey
Just three months after undergoing a bilateral mastectomy for breast cancer, Janet Mitchell hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon with her Maryland Roadrunners softball teammates – the same teammates who supported her through every step of her cancer journey.
“I was never alone. There are women on my team and many of my age in the softball community who have had the same experience, so I was able to get advice before the fact and the support afterwards has been great. On the field we are competitive as all get out, but off the field we have friends for life…”
Read about Janet’s love of team sports (she has played on a team every year since age 9!), what motivated her during recovery and how the Roadrunners’ positive chemistry contributes to their success in this Athlete of the Month feature.
Note: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Learn about risk factors, when to start screening mammograms and more here.
Health and Well-Being
Active Aging Week Resources for Wellness
Active Aging Week, celebrated earlier this month, promotes the benefits of healthy, active lifestyles. Check out these resources to help you on your active aging journey.
- Want to move more? Read 6 steps to try a sport for the first time.
- Learn about the seven dimensions of wellness.
- Share which element of wellness you want to work on with the National Senior Games community on Facebook.
Advancing Positive Aging Through Sports
Many older persons are often discriminated against and unfairly stereotyped due to their age. Worldwide, there’s growing recognition of the harmful effects of ageism on older adults and our society as a whole and the need for change.
Senior Games athletes have challenged ageist stereotypes for decades through their commitment to staying active and competing. Read more about ageism, how we can all help change the narrative and the important example athletes ages 50+ set in this blog from NSGA Health & Well-Being Director Andrew Walker.
Games Updates
Results Book – Digital Version Expected in November
The results book from the 2023 National Senior Games presented by Humana is in production and expected to be available on the NSGA website in November 2023. Printed results books will be mailed to individuals who purchased copies soon after it is published online.
Sponsor Spotlight
Why SilverSneakers Members Love Our Classes
Whether you’re starting an exercise routine for the first time or looking to mix up your workouts, SilverSneakers classes—online or in person—have something for you. Find out what they love about our older adult exercise classes and the wide variety of options that are available.
NSGA Official Partners
Thank You to Our Official Partners!
Health & Well-Being Partners
NSG Sport Partners
- Published in Newsletter
Advancing Positive Aging Through Sports
By Andrew Walker, MPH; NSGA Director of Health & Well-Being
Two tennis players competing at the 2023 National Senior Games presented by Humana shake hands at the net.
Older adults are living active lifestyles with increasing numbers participating in organized recreational activities, yet many older persons are often prejudged, discriminated against and unfairly stereotyped. These behaviors, attitudes and actions are generally referred to as ageism. Ageism has gone unchallenged over time and in large remains part of the fabric of American society.
Our world is in the early stages of acknowledging the impact of ageism on older adult well-being and society as a whole. At the National Senior Games Association, we’ve championed positive attitudes towards aging for over 30 years. Our work affirms an important tenet of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing initiative to give everyone the opportunity to add life to their years, and not just years to their life.
In support of longer lifespans and healthspans, we promote the principles of Olympism and fitness through sports to positively impact how individuals think, feel and act towards age and ageing.
Changing Perceptions on Aging
If you are a Senior Games athlete at any level, congratulations! Your participation is a powerful challenge to ageist stereotypes and contributes to a new culture of well-being for older adults. This impact is multiplied times thousands during the National Senior Games, when over 11,000 athletes ages 50-100+ converge to compete in 20 sports and change perceptions one run, jump and dive at a time.
Combatting ageism, however, can also occur in everyday interactions. People of all ages can help change the narrative by simply starting a conversation. As the Global Campaign to Combat Ageism shares in their guide to initiating conversations on ageism, “Continued, open conversations can help us acknowledge the myths and stereotypes that we have all internalized during a lifetime, recognize ageism when we encounter it and understand that ending discrimination requires collective action.”
I hope you will join me in advocating for an age-friendly world where everyone can thrive.
- Published in Health & Well-Being
“I Was Never Alone”: Softball Team Bolsters Player Through Breast Cancer Journey
October 2023 Athlete of the Month
By Del Moon, NSGA PR Specialist
Janet Mitchell, 67
Gaithersburg, Maryland
It’s not easy to deal with the shock of a breast cancer diagnosis, but Janet Mitchell says softball and her team helped her overcome the challenge five years ago.
Janet Mitchell of Maryland.
Janet hardly knows a time when she wasn’t on the diamond. “I was on my first organized team at nine years old, and I’ve been on some kind of team every year since then, except the COVID year,” she says. “I was in an active family with three athletic brothers and a sister. I’m lucky because my mom played sports in high school in the 1940’s. She never said, ‘Girls shouldn’t play sports.’ She said, ‘Go out there and play!”
Since she was able to qualify and join in, Janet’s Maryland Roadrunners softball team has always been on the medal stand at the state level and for the past 10 National Senior Games, toting gold more often than not. She’s quick to note the reason for their success was not due to her or any other star players, but to continuity and team unity.
“Incredibly, we have 12 players who have been together since 2005 in the Roadrunners,” she says. “We don’t have a big softball organization with multiple teams near us like in some parts of the country. There are more available players in those areas, so we have tended to stick together. We are so successful on the field because of our positive, supportive chemistry.”
“I started with this team at age 50, and we now play in 65+,” she continues. “Half of our players will be eligible next year to move up to the 70+ division, but we will wait until everyone ages up before we go to the next division. We are a family of sisters.”
Janet enjoyed a healthy life with no major medical problems other than “a bazillion knee surgeries which most of us players have had at some point.” That changed in early 2018 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Five weeks later, she opted for a bilateral mastectomy. “If they were going to take one breast they might as well take both so I wouldn’t have to wear a prosthetic for the rest of my life,” she explains. While it was a harrowing experience, Janet is grateful to her extended family who helped her overcome the challenges.
“I was never alone. There are women on my team and many of my age in the softball community who have had the same experience, so I was able to get advice before the fact and the support afterwards has been great. On the field we are competitive as all get out, but off the field we have friends for life. It’s a community of athletes who were there every step of the way for me.”
The Maryland Roadrunners softball team celebrates their bronze medal win at the 2023 National Senior Games Softball Championship.
In addition to the support system, having the desire to get back into the game was a big motivation for her recovery. “It’s part of who I am, and I needed to get back out there,” she says. “We travel, play, eat, hike, laugh, cry and enjoy being together for tournaments,” she emphasizes. “With them by my side, I have no fears about whatever might come my way – we’ll handle it as a family.”
Three months after her procedure, Janet had a trip planned with some teammates to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back with a 35-pound backpack, and she was not sure if her doctor would approve. “Luckily, my breast surgeon is a hiker and told me, ‘If I have to bind you up, you’re going on that trip!’ And I did! After that, rejoining the Roadrunners on the field for tournaments was a piece of cake.”
In March of this year, her oncologist gave the good news that she did not need to continue with medications after five years and her prognosis is good. Janet, an outfielder who shares team management with fellow player Mary Byrnes, is thankful to be looking forward to going to Des Moines for the 2025 National Senior Games. “We have a great chemistry and enjoy each other so much. That’s what makes us successful. We’re not always the strongest team on the field, but we win a lot of games because we just never quit and pull for each other.”
“We’ve had a good run for sure and it’s been fun,” she concludes. “We have such a good time it makes the playing part easy.”
- Published in Athlete of the Month