TRUE GRIT GUIDES 55 PLUS ATHLETES
Lack of hands can’t stop Calgarian, 77, from being fierce competitor in darts
For a dozen years, Anna Jarmics has ruled the dartboard — despite having no hands.
The 77-year-old Calgarian, who is the reigning national champion in her age category, takes another step in defending her crown at the Alberta 55 Plus Games, which officially open Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Canada Olympic Park.
If she is successful in the ladies 70-plus competition, she will move on to the national final, where she is unbeaten in six consecutive tournaments stretching back 12 years (having played every two years).
Jarmics lost both hands as a young girl back in her native Hungary in 1945 when she bravely grabbed a live grenade to save her younger brother and sister from the blast.
She had been playing in her grandmother’s yard with her younger siblings when a Russian soldier lobbed the grenade across the fence.
“We were playing in the sand and we were watching the Russian tanks going past when the grenade was thrown.
“In my mind it was all about saving my brother and sister because it fell right in between us. I was the oldest so I grabbed it and I wanted to throw it back but when I was running I tripped and when it hit the ground it exploded.
“So instead of every one of us being blown up, it was just me,” said Jarmics, who was 10 at the time.
She was taken to hospital, but there were few supplies and doctors were forced to amputate what was left of her shattered hands.
“Maybe these days they could have saved my hands, but everything was gone in the hospital then, so they just amputated at the wrists,” Jarmics added.
She fled to England in 1956 following the uprising against the Soviets in Hungary. Twelve years later she left for Canada hoping to join her brother who had settled in Calgary. She ended up in Toronto and worked as a cleaner.
“I thought I would be close by. I never realized the distance would be so great,” she said.
Soon she had four children — a girl and three boys.
“My husband left me a long time ago when my youngest was only 11 months old. I worked hard and raised them all by myself,” Jarmics said.
In was in Ontario that she first picked up a dart.
“I used to go to the Legion and a lot of my friends would play. A good friend said ‘Why are you sitting over there? Why don’t you come and try it?’
“I said ‘You’re kidding me.’ But after they finished I tried. The first dart I threw was a bull’s eye. I couldn’t believe it,” added Jarmics.
She moved to Calgary and began competing in 1998. Soon she won the national championship in her age group and has defended that title five times in the biennial games.
“I don’t have artificial hands. I just put my wrists together and use both my arms to hold the darts. I learned it by myself — nobody told me how to do it,” said Jarmics, who also developed into an acknowledged watercolour artist.
To get the chance to retain her Canadian title she first must qualify by winning the Alberta championships this week. Her competition begins Thursday at 9 a.m. the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park.
She is looking forward to the challenge.
“If it is meant to be, it will be. I will go and do my best and have fun.”