Each summer for more than two decades, a group of elite athletes competes on the campus of WVU Potomac State College for the chance to win a gold, silver, or bronze medal in their areas of athletic prowess and mental agility. They also come for the social reunion that happens among others who have attended the event since its founding.
The Senior Olympics kick off Tuesday afternoon, June 16, with an opening ceremony inside the Church-McKee Arts Center. PSC President Jerry Wallace is scheduled to be the opening keynote speaker and has been invited to light the official Senior Olympics torch. That torch will then be carried during the “Torch Walk” around campus and is expected to remain lit as the games progress throughout the week, culminating with a closing and medal ceremony on Friday, June 19.
At the event, seniors aged 55 and older will compete in 22 different games. Each game is divided into age group categories depending on the number of registered participants. The list of competitive categories includes events one might expect from an Olympic-sized competition – Bocce, basketball, football, track and field, soccer, disc golf, a 20-yard dash, softball, and lacrosse. But there are also specialty sports mixed in to the event, like corn hole toss, whiffle ball, shuffleboard, bean bag toss, pickleball, lawn darts, and even a Poker and Phase Ten card game competition.
Aging and Family Services of Mineral County (AFSMC) has been hosting the Senior Olympics annually at PSC since 2001 (except for 2020 and 2021, when the pandemic caused the event to be canceled).
“The event does have a somewhat serious competition aspect to it – and you can tell who has that athletic competition nature – but most people attend for the annual social connection with each other,” said Scott Mallery, director of AFSMC. “We have people at the event now who have attended all of them. And we have the kids of original participants involved now.”
Mallery says he expects around 150 participants to attend the games this year.
“Over the last 25 years, we have had 1,000 different athletes. We generally get between 100 and 150 people who attend. The athletes range from age 55 up to 85 or so. The oldest athlete we had was 101 years old. That was Elda Campbell. She came up from Clay County, and she participated in nearly every event the year she was here. She brought her daughter and son-in-law, who were in their 70s, and they competed too.”
One of the original athletes at the Senior Olympics who never missed a year was a popular participant named Lux Stiefel. Well into her 90s, Stiefel came to Keyser to compete in the Track and Field event. She was known for winning the gold. When Stiefel competed, the stands were full of cheerleaders. She had a loyal following as she was somewhat of a celebrity. At the age of 25, Stiefel represented Switzerland in the javelin throw in the 1938 Olympics in Vienna, Austria, which at the time was under the control of Nazi Germany. She placed fourth at the Olympics, bested by three female athletes from Germany. While Stiefel had the Swiss flag of a white cross on a bed of solid red on her Olympic apparel, the women who won gold, silver, and bronze that year all wore swastikas. In 2008, Stiefel spoke of her Olympics experience to a group of young people during a talk inside Lough Gymnasium at Potomac State College. She died six years later in 2014 at 101 years old.
The event has grown over its 25-year history, starting in June 2001 with around 10 participants in just a handful of categories for one day, to the faithful who come year after year for what is now a four-day event.
“With the years, we have learned from our mistakes and made things better,” says Mallery. “We now run the event Tuesday through Friday. Friday ends with the closing ceremony, where we award all the medals. When you see someone win a medal for the first time, there are definitely some tears.”
Athletes come from all over the state of West Virginia and also from neighboring Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
“These folks tend to travel a long distance,” Mallery says. “Some counties send as many as 20 athletes. Most of them do tend to be former athletes, but some people are more interested in all of the social activities the event provides. But you can always tell who was a former athlete because they are the ones who argue with the judges.”
While here, a majority of the athletes find lodging in the dorm rooms at University Place.
“For a lot of these folks, they might not have ever gone to college and never gone to summer camp, so this is their week away to experience that and to stay in the dorms and have a roommate,” Mallery says. “I can tell you that they enjoy staying on the campus. It’s a beautiful setting. They are all up late in the cafeteria playing cards and talking, and then when we arrive, sometimes at 5:30 or 6 a.m. to get set up, they are already up walking around campus, having coffee. It’s something those who participate look forward to doing every year.”
Mallery says while registration to secure lodging on campus has ended, local folks who would like to compete and can commute can still sign up for events.
“We have some day-of walk-up registrations, and we welcome those,” he said.
Events are held all over the PSC campus. During the day, the action shifts from Church-McKee to the soccer field, women’s softball field, the Quad, Lough Gymnasium, and inside the Davis Conference Center.
All events are free for spectators.
“We invite anyone who is interested to come out and watch the competition and cheer on their favorite competitors,” Mallery said. “We really do want to thank Potomac State College for this partnership. I know it means a lot to the people who compete, and I know it means a great deal to our seniors in the Mineral County community.”
For more information about this year’s Mineral County Senior Olympics, visit the Facebook page of Aging & Family Services of Mineral County, call (304) 788-5467, or email smallery@wvaging.com