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Nearly 10,000 highly motivated athletes of a certain age are poised to descend on Palo Alto as the 2009 Senior Games begin this weekend on the Stanford University campus and at other venues in the Bay Area.
The competitors, all over age 50 and some reaching the triple digits, will go for medals in 18 events, plus another seven demonstration sports. Mainstay competitions in track and field, swimming, tennis and volleyball will share the stage with lawn bowling, shuffleboard and archery when the games officially begin a two-week run on Saturday, Aug. 1, with the arrival of the solar-powered Games torch at Palo Alto City Hall.
At the same ceremony, local organizing committee CEO Anne Warner Cribbs will receive a proclamation from Palo Alto Mayor Peter Drekmeier.
Even before the arrival of the torch, many athletes will have already begun preliminary rounds of competition in their specialty, while others will take part in official practice. Those who arrive early and visit the primary Games venue at Stanford, will find a wealth of resources at their disposal, including a daily dose of bananas and oranges, and keepsake metal water bottles designed to eliminate the use of disposable plastic bottles during the Games.
The competitors will be able to sample a wide range of entertainment options on campus at the party tent and at the main stage, including live music, tasting locally-produced wines and beers from Palo Alto’s own Gordon Biersch brew pub.
Athletes who want to gain valuable insights into their health can attend twice-daily lectures by Stanford physicians and other experts that will be offered at the Avery Aquatic Center.
And on Aug. 3 and 10, Games participants and their families are urged to enjoy a “night on the town” at selected Palo Alto restaurants that will offer special discounts to those who show their Games credential, including Palo Alto’s Old Pro (the Old Pro for Old Pros).
Officially scheduled for Aug. 1–15, the biennial Games will include medal competition in 18 sports, plus tournaments and contests in seven demonstration sports. Games officials say about 30,000 total visitors will come to Palo Alto and other Bay Area cities over the two-week period, generating a $35 million economic impact.
Early on, Games organizers decided that every effort would be made to limit the impact of thousands of athletes descending on the Bay Area.
“We on the committee (Senior Games Organizing Committee) made a commitment to the environment” at the very beginning, said Cribbs, the major force behind the Games. Along with the stainless steel bottles, provided by the City of Palo Alto, Cribbs worked with Stanford to install 11 hydration stations around the main competition venues where athletes can refill their bottles in seconds.
And in place of greasy fast food, athletes will find Palo Alto farmers market vendors have moved from City Hall to the Stanford campus, as well as local favorites Hobees and Lulu’s. And Palo Alto is helping to provide free use of 125 bicycles to help athletes get around the campus and to downtown shopping.
But the most elaborate energy-saving effort of the Games is the solar powered torch and cauldron designed and built by IDEO, the Palo Alto design firm known for its skill in innovation. With the goal of creating a flameless torch that used no hydrocarbons, IDEO engineers came up with a solar battery pack hidden inside an elegant torch crafted from old-growth redwood.
The orange LED-lights inside the torch are bright and pulse with the stride of runners, who will carry it on Aug. 1 from the base of the Golden Gate Bridge to a pregame show before the Giants play at AT&T Park. From there the torch will travel by train to Palo Alto and circle through Stanford before arriving to light a high-tech cauldron at a ceremony declaring the Games open on Saturday night at Palo Alto City Hall.
For Cribbs, a gold medal-winning swimmer in the 1960 Olympics, the opening ceremony will be the culmination of work that began after a “silver medal effort” to win the Olympic Games for the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003. With an organization in place, Cribbs and her supporters, including former Stanford Athletic Director Ted Leland, turned their sights to the biennial Senior Games, and set to work.
After passing the written test and showing off the Bay Area to Senior Games officials, the local group learned in 2004 that the prize was theirs and immediately began organizing the 12th Senior Games, which were last held in Louisville, Ky.
Every state holds at least one qualifying round in each event, and many hold more, including California, which had seven regional trials. Athletes compete in age groups, ranging from 50 to 60 years old all the way to 90-plus.
SEE ALSO:
■ Senior Games Daily (July 30, 2009) (PDF)
■ Road closures during the Senior Games
