
Six Haines residents earned 19 medals competing in the 16th Alaska International Senior Games Aug. 10-19 in Fairbanks.
Tomi Scovill, Nancy Nash, Marian and John Carlson, and Connie and Tom Ward road-tripped to Fairbanks, where the games are held annually. Competitors must be 50 or over. There are 21 categories of events, ranging from track and field to mini golf and swimming.
More than 400 athletes competed in age-group divisions, including 103-year-old Bettie Upright, a longtime Fairbanks resident who entered bocce ball, shot put, javelin and 50-meter dash.
“I said, I have to shake her hand,” Scovill said. “It was just awesome. What’s so cool is that there are so many people out there competing.”
Nancy Nash, 68, won medals in five events, including gold medals in 100-yard backstroke in swimming, 50- and 100-meter dash, and silvers in shot put and 50-yard backstroke.
The four Haines women once played together in the same softball league. “We’re kind of re-inventing ourselves,” Nash said, and finding enjoyment in sports they didn’t have the opportunity to play as young women.
Nash said when she was growing up, cheerleading was the only school activity open to women. She learned shot put through Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) competitions — “that’s where I learned my glide technique” — and picked up swim strokes and tips from a former Haines Dolphins coach.
Preparing for the Fairbanks competition, Nash ran intervals on View Street in Haines. She practiced shot put with Ward at the high school track twice weekly since June.
Ward, Scovill and Carlson qualified for the National Senior Games competition.
Ward, 58, won golds and qualified for the national meet in shot put, discus and javelin, setting Alaska age-group records in all three events. Ward holds the high school record for women’s javelin in Gold Beach, Ore.
“[Ward] has practically world-class javelin abilities,” Nash said. “All the other women go out and throw the javelin and it wobbles and then Connie goes up and the women were like, “Oh my God.'”
Ward said prior to the Fairbanks meet, she hadn’t picked up a javelin since 1978. “I just bought one. It just came in the mail two days ago.”
Ward, a volleyball and softball player, is planning to compete in the national Senior Games in Albuquerque next June “if I don’t hurt myself,” she said. Ward’s husband, Tom Ward, won a silver medal in the standing long jump. “It was a blast,” she said.
Scovill organized the Haines athletes, starting with a meeting in June at the Fogcutter. The friends had talked about participating for years. “I said, ‘Let’s just do it, let’s go,'” Scovill said. “And everybody got excited.”
Scovill was in Juneau seven weeks for cancer treatment last November when she started walking regularly.
“I started walking real fast,” Scovill said. “You have to push yourself. You can’t give in. You can’t. You have to stay motivated and push yourself.”
Back in Haines, she kept it up. Cancer motivated her to stop just talking about competing in the senior games. “I’m not waiting anymore. I’m doing things. And I think that’s important; don’t keep putting things off.”
Scovill looked up the power walking times of last year’s winners and started timing herself at the local track.
In Fairbanks, she earned bronze in the 1,500-meter power walk, taking 25 seconds off her best time. She also earned golds in horseshoes, golf, and a less familiar sport: bocce ball. “I never even knew what bocce ball was. We Googled it.”
Scovill threw her first ringer on her 90th horseshoe toss to win gold.
Marian Carlson won six golds, including four in swimming events, plus bocce ball and golf.
Carlson is a former competitive swimmer and assistant swim coach. “It was all muscle memory,” she said.
She said she enjoyed trying out bocce ball. “I’ve never played bocce ball in my life, and here we are, I won. It was fun.”
Diann Darnall, president of the board of the Senior Games in Alaska, said the event is attracting more seniors each year, especially from rural communities.” “Everybody who comes seems to come the next year. Anchorage has been late to latch on to it.”
The competition has helped popularize pickleball — an indoor variation of tennis — in Alaska. “The snowbirds brought it up from Arizona. It’s a big, national sport now.”
Darnall told the story of an 88-year-old swimmer who competed the first time, unsure he was able to still make it across the pool. He’s now on a training schedule.
“When you see the joy and happiness on the faces of these athletes, it’s incredible,” Darnall said.