GAME ON!
2023 Registration Update – We’re Just Getting Started
Registration is going at a strong pace for the 2023 National Senior Games presented by Humana, including 20 sports scheduled in Pittsburgh and our 2023 Softball Championship in Columbus, Ohio.
It’s still early, and some state final results have yet to be verified, so do not fear if you have not yet received your qualification notice. You can check your state’s results status online, which NSGA updates as soon as results are verified for qualifications. Go to the Registration Page and click on the blue box to get real-time updates.
Venue Spotlight: Swimming at University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh’s Olympic-size Trees Pool serves as the home to the varsity men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams. With a capacity of 770,000 gallons, it was the largest indoor pool in the United States when completed in 1962.
The venue recently completed a $4 million renovation that now includes updated locker rooms, team meeting room and lounge, and upgraded circulation and draining systems. The pool can be set for eight 50-meter lanes, and twenty 25-yard lanes, when set for short course. NSGA will be utilizing 9 lanes with starting blocks for their competition. The aquatic complex comes equipped with both a separate and attached warm-up pool area, men’s and women’s locker rooms, large digital scoreboard, Daktronics timing system and an elevated spectator seating area. Pool temperature will be set to 80 degrees for the National Senior Games swimming competition next July.
Exhibitor Opportunities Available for the 2023 National Senior Games
Promote your brand, product or service to the nation’s top senior athletes in 2023. The NSGA offers a variety of exciting vendor and sponsorship opportunities at the National Senior Games in Columbus and Pittsburgh. For detailed information and pricing, please email NSGA Business Development.
Pittsburgh: A Cultural Phenomenon
The vibrant arts and culture scene is alive and thriving in Pittsburgh. Throughout the city and the region, galleries and museums offer everything from the cutting-edge to the classic.
Set in the heart of the city, Downtown’s lively, 14-square-block Cultural District is home to nine theatres that showcase a world-renowned symphony orchestra, opera, dance and award-winning plays that enliven Pittsburgh.
The GRAMMY® award-winning Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performs in the elegant Heinz Hall, while the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh Dance Council and PNC Broadway Series take the stage at the beautifully-restored Benedum Center for the Performing Arts. The August Wilson African American Cultural Center welcomes a variety of performances, from concerts to theater to influential speakers and more. And, contemporary and classical performances from the Pittsburgh Public Theater also can be found at the O’Reilly Theatre.
Among the highly acclaimed museums and galleries to explore is The Andy Warhol Museum. This Only in Pittsburgh gem, the most-comprehensive single-artist museum in North America, celebrates the life and work of the Pittsburgh native, one of Pop Arts’ founding fathers.
Just down the road you’ll find the Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art, a unique and captivating museum hailed as one of the world’s best facilities for installation art.
The Carnegie Museum of Art, arguably the first contemporary art museum in the United States, features a collection of more than 30,000 objects in a range of different media. And, the attached Carnegie Museum of Natural History allows visitors to step back in time and walk among the dinosaurs and other ancient creatures in the Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibit, one of the country’s largest collections of dinosaur bones.
The Frick Pittsburgh is a five-acre complex of museums and landscaped grounds, which includes Clayton, home of Henry Clay Frick from 1882-1905 and one of the nation’s most well-preserved Gilded Age estates.
The Senator John Heinz History Center, Pennsylvania’s largest history center and an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, tells the story of life in the Western Pennsylvania region and features both rotating and permanent exhibitions, including the biggest collection of original items from the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood television set.
Visitors also can explore the beauty and wonders of nature at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, a 15-acre attraction which includes a historic 14-room glasshouse and 23 distinct gardens. Also in Oakland are the Nationality Rooms at the University of Pittsburgh, where 30 rooms depict Pittsburgh’s ethnic heritage.
Pittsburgh also is home to public art that adds character to already unique spaces, including Katz Plaza, Downtown and the Southwestern Pennsylvania World War II Memorial and the Tribute to Children in the North Shore.
Just outside Pittsburgh are stunning examples of Frank Lloyd Wright’s amazing architecture, including Fallingwater, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Kentuck Knob, as well as Mäntylä and the Duncan House.
Learn more about Pittsburgh’s phenomenal arts and cultural offerings at VisitPITTSBURGH.com.
DECEMBER ATHLETE OF THE MONTH
Gary Patton, 77
Rock Springs, Iowa
Gary Patton Refines and Finds Success
By Del Moon
Gary Patton never dreamed he would one day be an elite athlete. “I was 4 foot 11 in high school and underdeveloped. I was not athlete material at all.”
Now 5’4” at the age of 77, Gary has become a tall figure in mid distance running, finding himself on the medal stand regularly and setting records in national and international masters competition. At the National Senior Games in May, the retired engineer set the National Senior Games #1 all-time record in two 75-79 age events, besting the 800-meter record by 15 seconds and crushing the 1500 mark by almost 25 seconds.
Gary Patton never dreamed he would one day be an elite athlete. “I was 4 foot 11 in high school and underdeveloped. I was not athlete material at all.”
Now 5’4” at the age of 76, Gary has become a tall figure in mid distance running, finding himself on the medal stand regularly and setting records in national and international masters competition. At the National Senior Games in May, the retired engineer set the National Senior Games #1 all-time record in two 75-79 age events, besting the 800-meter record by 15 seconds and crushing the 1500 mark by almost 25 seconds.
He’s thrilled to have competed against the likes of U.S. Olympian Gary Hall, Boston Marathon champion Bill Rodgers and world masters’ record holder Nolan Shaheed. At 70 he won the USATF Masters Road Race Grand Prix for his age group, garnering 490 of a possible 500 points in 5 races. He set the 70-74 world record mark for the indoor mile in 2017, and in 2018 was named USATF Masters Men’s 70-74 Athlete of the Year.
Gary may not have considered himself an athlete, but he always enjoyed jogging and running. “Then in my 40’s I got started doing local road races and progressed into track and field, and I’ve done some half marathons and three marathons,” he says. “But I discovered I don’t enjoy long distances and the 10K is the farthest I do now. It’s been a slow progression over years and years, and I just kinda found my niche for what I excel in with running. It’s been so much fun.”
The lifelong resident of Rock Rapids, Iowa did not show his potential when he began to compete, but found that adding cross training and strength work produces better results than running alone. He continually refines his body and training schedule as he ages. “The last five years I’ve had a three day per week schedule. Five to seven miles of running every third day, some kind of strength work, and then some kind of aerobic cross training -elliptical, swimming, biking, that sort of thing.”
“The fact that I mix up my training is why I don’t get injured, which is probably my primary advantage over my competition,” Gary explained to Runners World in 2017. “I haven’t missed a masters indoor or outdoor national meet since my first one in 2008. Fifteen miles a week or so is easy on the legs.”
Gary enjoys racing as often as he can. “There aren’t that many masters track events around the country,” he notes. “I like to get out and do enough road races to satisfy my competitive nature and keep life interesting. I get bored easily and enjoy the intensity of doing a lot of races.”
Now the man to beat, Gary is ranked #2 in the world for this year’s outdoor track season in the 800 meter and the mile by Mastersrankings.com and embraces the role. “I had major ambitions for coming into the 75 age level with nine USATF records and those two National Senior Games records in mind. I’ve set 6 of the 9 records in the past year and a half. I’ve got plans for getting the last three.”
Senior Games hold a special place for Gary. “I didn’t know about masters track until I got into Senior Games, which brings so many more people into competition through the state-based system. Plus there’s stuff going on all over the place. I don’t typically go to more than my own events but I made it to some tennis games and the swimming this year. I swim for cross training and usually just do a lap and take a few breaths each time, and these people were just going back and forth and back. I couldn’t stand up to my age group in a swimming competition!”
Gary is proud of the example he is setting for others, especially his two sons. “They’re big fans and brag that “my dad is a world class runner’ with friends and coworkers. A what?” (Laughs)
CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR ATHLETE STORY
SENIOR HEALTH & WELL-BEING
Sustaining Women’s engagement in Active Aging Sports
By Andrew Walker, MPH; Director of Health & Well-Being
The first sports bra was believed to be created in 1972 with two jock straps tied together. Since Title IX was put in place 50 years ago, literally millions of opportunities have come into play for women and girls to participate in physical activity and sports in their own light.
The National Senior Games (NSG) is honored to have the largest number of female athletes from the Title IX era still active to be found. And in this 50th anniversary year, NSG has reached an almost even gender split, with women representing 49 percent of the participants and men representing 51 percent.
Art Of The Olympians Artist, Ronald Bradstock
NSG has created space for these women to enjoy the thrill of competition while reaping the benefits of well-being that come from fitness through sports and social connectivity. The Games offers social interaction through team and individual sport engagement; a place where participants can build and deepen social connections during special events and creative programming. Outside of the Games NSGA has joined Humana’s efforts to address social isolation among older adults through the Far From Alone initiative.
Hosting events that salute NSGA’s female pioneer athletes and participating in this year’s 50th anniversary of Title IX has deepened our awareness of women’s health and well-being in the Senior Games movement. A recent article on women’s sports injuries in the International Dance Exercise Association Journal reminded me of a statement attributed to Stacy T. Sims. PhD: “Women are not just little men.”
Of course, there is room for improvement in gender equity in scholastic and women’s sports. This encourages NSG to be more engaging regarding services that female athletes are able to receive when participating in the Senior Athlete Fitness Exam (SAFE). Currently SAFE is our best option for functional fitness assessments and to prevent injuries most common to women including overuse injury, anterior cruciate injury, patellofemoral injury, ankle sprains, chronic ankle instability, and shoulder instability.
To further illustrate the potential for closing gender gaps in sports, a recent article in Sports Engineering asked some interesting questions regarding technology and engineering in women’s sports, among them:
- How has religious inclusion been considered in soccer kit manufacturing for women?
- How are sports bras designed to match women footballers’ needs?
- Does it impact playing performance that women play with the same footballs as men?
- How can menstrual cycle tracking apps be employed to manage elite women footballer’s wellbeing and performance?
These questions indicate and affirm that closing the gender gaps between women and men’s sports is still a goal to be achieved. This is a call for a collaborative process among female athletes and programming at both the State and National Senior Games that reaffirms the importance of gender specific procedures. We all must work to maintain a collective effort, deepening our understanding of the changes needed to proactively sustain current sports participation by active aging women.
Help Keep America Active – Support NSGA
NSGA’s Mission goes beyond just putting on games for older adults. It’s about spreading the message that our athletes are proving true every day – stay active and involved in life and you will enjoy the benefits of healthy aging.
NSGA does not receive any federal funding. Sponsorships, merchandise sales and entry fees comprise most of our revenue, but there is another important source where we receive support that has been growing, and that is generous donations from individuals.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the National Senior Games Association to improve and enhance our mission to keep America moving. Thank you!
NSG OFFICIAL APPAREL
2023 National Senior Games Merchandise Available Online!
In case you missed it – 2023 National Senior Games merchandise is now available from the NSGA Online Store? You can also check out limited items from the 2022 Games!
Get in gear – Click here for the NSGA Online Store.
NSGA OFFICIAL PARTNERS
HEALTH & WELL-BEING PARTNERS
NSG SPORT PARTNERS
