Games keep senior afloat

Gripping the edge of the pool with one hand, 89-year-old Glenda Crites tucks her short curly hair under her swim cap in preparation for her final race in the Missouri State Senior Games.

Crites began swimming by default after she was diagnosed with diverticulitis and forced to retire at 67.

“As long as I swam I wasn’t in pain. Otherwise it was excruciating pain,” Crites said, “My swimming at first was just to survive. I was not a good swimmer, I could barely get down the pool.”

Soon her determination to survive spawned a love for the sport. Crites competed in her first competitive swim meet in 1984 in St. Louis and knew it was something she wanted to continue. She set goals to do better at each meet and even at 89, is still improving her times from previous meets.

“I always have goals, and I’m not satisfied unless I achieve something,” Crites said.

Seven years ago Crites had another setback when doctors informed her she had colon cancer and was given a 50 percent chance of living. But she refused to let that stop her.

“I thought, some people do live and I’m going to be one of them. I don’t give up,” she said.

She has traveled to several states to swim competitively including Florida, New York, Texas and Louisiana with her husband Claude by her side.

“I couldn’t do it without him,” Glenda Crites said.

Crites said she swims in at least five senior games a year. She enjoys swimming most of the events, but said her favorite event, and also one of the longest, is the 500-yard freestyle.

Cites said her motto is to do everything you can today and she tells people at the retirement community in Glen Carbon, Ill., where she lives, to be positive about life.

“If all you can do is wiggle your toes and move your hands do it and do a little bit more,” Crites said.

When she’s not traveling to swim meets across the Midwest, she is in the pool anywhere from four to six days a week. Crites has recorded about 3,000 miles of laps at her local YMCA.

For now, she said she intends to take some time off from swimming before gearing up for her next meet in Springfield, Ill., in September.

“She won’t quit, not yet anyway,” Claude Crites said.

It’s that type of determination and dedication that earned Cites roaring applause as she completed her last race in the Missouri State Senior Games.

“I won’t stop until I die,” she said.

— Megan Ham

Cycling

The Missouri Senior State Games 10K cycling event came to a thrilling end Sunday as streams of racers rounded the final bend to the cheers of adoring fans stationed at the end of the course outside Hatton-McCredie Elementary School in Hatton. Denton Waggener, 50, of Lee’s Summit sprinted toward the finish line on an old Specialized bike which shook violently with each pedal stroke.

“It’s an oldie but a goodie,” Waggener said of his carbon-frame bike.

Waggener participated in each cycling event offered at the games, including everything from the 1-minute time trial to the 40K road race with varied success.

“It’s hard to compete with these guys with brand new equipment when I just have my old bike,” Waggener said. “However, a lot of it has to do with what type of talent you have.”

Waggener has been cycling most of his life, but began to take it more seriously after he developed severe knee problems from playing basketball and soccer.

“I decided to switch to a sport that didn’t put as much pressure on my knee so I could do things like pick up my son,” Waggener said. “I like the speed and Lance Armstrong is kind of my hero. I’m a cancer survivor too.”

Waggener, who was hesitant to discuss his bout with cancer, said he looks to Armstrong for inspiration. As an avid cycling fan, Waggener frequently watches the sport on TV and never misses the Tour de France.

“I’ve been watching since Greg LeMond was racing,” Waggener said. “Every year, I make it a point to watch, especially when Lance was racing all those years.”

This is Waggener’s first year of senior games competition, an experience he has enjoyed.

“I like them a lot because you get to compete in more events than the Show-Me games,” Waggener said.

Despite his newly discovered admiration for the games, Waggener will still make his third appearance at the Show-Me State Games in July to participate in the 19 1/2-mile cycling race.

In addition to training and cycling whenever he gets the chance, Waggener will be busying working towards doctorate in Audiology, the study of hearing in humans, while continuing to operate his Audiology practice.

“I had been thinking about opening my own practice my entire life,” Waggener said. “It’s the one year anniversary next month. It’s stressful being your own boss, but it’s a different type of stress than working for an ENT (ear, nose and throat) doctor.”

Waggener’s office is located just four miles from his house which allows him to cycle to work.

“When I can, I do,” Waggener said.

Although he will not be competing in nationals this year, Waggener says he will return to the senior games next year for another chance at nationals and is considering participating in other events.

“I’ll maybe do bowling as well as cycling next year,” Waggener said.

— Kristen Roques

Badminton

With an embroidered badminton birdie on the front of her white shirt and a diamond incrusted racquet necklace and gold birdie earrings framing her face, it is clear badminton has played a large part in 84-year-old Virginia Smith’s life.

Smith, who has been playing badminton for more than 65 years, competed in the Missouri State Senior Games in Columbia on Sunday. She was the oldest female to compete in her favorite sport.

“I met my husband at a badminton tournament,” Smith said. “We met in 1941 and were married in 1942, so I think badminton’s a great game.”

Smith met her husband Russell at a St. Louis City tournament. They enjoyed playing together as a mixed doubles team for the next 20 years. They raised three sons, none of whom shared the same passion for badminton.

“The adults were so into playing that we wouldn’t let the kids get on the court,” Smith said, laughing.

Smith, from Bridgeton, has made trips all over the world to play in tournaments and has a collection of souvenir pins on her jacket to prove it.

She has played in national and international badminton tournaments, including one in Bermuda.

“An international tournament in Bermuda, that’s a good excuse to get to Bermuda,” Smith said.

It was not until 1990 that she started playing in the senior games. Since then, she has been all over the country playing in state and national games.

Smith won in singles for her age group and doubles for the 50-54 age group. She placed second in mixed doubles with her partner in the 65-69 age group.

Smith also competed in table tennis and bowling at this year’s games, placing first in her age group in singles table tennis and first in the 60-64 age group with her younger doubles and mixed doubles partners.

“In my age group, there aren’t many people anymore ” Smith said. “Even in the 75 age group, but I do play the other age groups.”

Smith qualified for several events in next summers’ national senior games in Louisville, Ky.

— Alycia Lewis

Bowling

Susan McCoy refuses to be kept from bowling. Nothing, not even a broken back, has stopped her.

McCoy cracked a vertebra falling off of her porch in November.

“The doctor said I couldn’t bowl again and I said, ‘yes I can,’” McCoy said.

McCoy has a hard time imagining life without bowling. When she and her husband Gene were told that they could save about $200 dollars a month by skipping bowling tournaments, they were not keen on the idea.

“If we give up bowling, we figure why live?” she said.

Sunday at the Missouri State Senior Games, McCoy, 58, bowled for the first time since her accident. It was a successful weekend, too. She won a silver medal in the scratch bowling competition to qualify for nationals next summer. Despite hurting her right knee earlier this week, she won the medal by bowling a 546 for three games, the best series she has bowled.

McCoy has a history of not letting something like a trip to the hospital get in the way of bowling. When she gave birth to her youngest daughter on a Thursday in 1976, she had a simple request.

“I had to make sure they put the IV in my left arm so I could bowl on Monday night,” she said.

McCoy said she enjoyed bowling while her kids were at school.

“It gave me something to do to get out of the house,” she said.

McCoy and her husband Gene competed together in Sunday’s mixed doubles competition, wearing matching American flag shirts. They were childhood sweethearts, but they weren’t married until recently. They met in Montclair, Calif., while she was attending Vernon Junior High School and he was at Montclair High School. After graduating, though, they moved apart. Susan found someone else, but after 36 years that marriage ended in divorce. She reunited with Gene through classmates.com and the realtionship picked up where it had started.

“It was like we were teenagers again,” Susan McCoy said.

They found they shared a love of bowling and went on a bowling tour before settling down in Sparta. They play in leagues in nearby Springfield, Mo., and take part in tournaments. They go on the road for tournaments during the summer and, to save money, camp instead of getting a hotel room.

— Kevin Garnett