The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Aging stars still keeping up
Several U.S. athletes bidding for medals in their 30s, 40s.
Some days, when Meb Keflezighi hits the road, his legs just don’t want to move.
That is what happens to a marathoner when he reaches the comparatively ancient age of 41.
“You can’t run like you’re 25 anymore,” he said. “You’re going to have bad days.”
The fact that Keflezighi has qualified for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro — where he will become the oldest American Olympic marathoner — astonishes some of his younger teammates.
“Meb is amazing,” middle-distance runner Alysia Montano says. “He isn’t the norm.”
But he isn’t a rarity, either. More elite athletes are remaining competitive at an athletically advanced age.
The 40-somethings on the U.S. team headed for Brazil include runner Bernard Lagat, triathlete Hunter Kemper and cyclist Kristin Armstrong, a defending Olympic champion in road racing who has come back from retirement twice.
Kerri Walsh Jennings will try for her fourth gold medal in beach volleyball at 37. That’s the same age as taekwondo athlete Steven Lopez. Race walker John Nunn and tennis players Bob and Mike Bryan are 38.
“With the science we have now, we can preserve the body and allow the physiology to go longer,” said Tim Pelot, a strength and conditioning coach with the U.S. Olympic Committee. “We have older athletes competing at a really high level.”
With each Olympics over the past three decades, the average age of the American team has crept steadily upward, from 25.2 at the 1984 Los Angeles Games to 27.1 in London four years ago.
“We’re seeing it in other sports too,” said Scott Sailor, president of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association. “Even in sports like football.”
Much of this longevity can be attributed to advancements in conditioning and nutrition. Injuries are diagnosed sooner and treated more effectively.
“I just think we’ve come a long way with knowledge,” Walsh Jennings said. “People are training smarter and eating better.”
Something else that might not seem to jibe with elite sports is helping: knowing when to take it easy.
“Recovery” is a catchphrase among top athletes. Pelot stresses paying attention to your body because those aches, pains and twinges are sending an important message.
“When fatigue happens, we can’t perform at the same capacity, so we have to adapt our workload,” he said. “We have to modify our training.”
For Keflezighi, that means dialing back on off-days to avoid over-fatigue or injury. He talks about the wisdom of knowing “you don’t have to have you’re a-plus game all the time.”
At the relatively younger age of 30, judoka Marti Malloy has made similar accommodations in her daily regimen. “When I was in college, I was able to wake up at 6 a.m. and do weight training then go to work and class, then go do judo,” she said. “That’s all in one day.”
Now she plans her workouts for months in advance, building up slowly, tapering down after particularly tough weeks, fitting rest time into the schedule.
“I hate saying that because it makes me feel so old,” she said. “But it’s something you have to stay on top of.”