Older athletes competing in Beijing include
- 67-year-old Japanese horseman Hiroshi Hoketsu
- 61-year-old Canadian show jumper Ian Millar (competing in his ninth Olympics)
- 60-year-old Australian show jumper Laurie Lever
- 58-year-old US sailor John Dane III
- 57-year-old Canadian trap shooter Susan Nattrass
- 56-year-old American Libby Callahan, who will compete in pistol shooting
- 53-year-old Israeli marathon runner Haile Satayin
- 50-year old Canadian fencer Luan Jujie
- 41-year old US swimmer Dara Torres
- 39-year-old US modern pentathlete Sheila Taormina (who becomes the first woman to compete in the Olympics in three different sports)
This list is notable for the presence of older competitors in sports requiring more prolonged physical endurance, such as swimming and the pentathlon. Gary Dorshimer, MD, a sports medicine specialist from the University of Pennsylvania told Musculoskeletal Report that training in three areas including techniques, nutrition, and hydration have also improved at unprecedented rates during the past decade.
“In all three areas, research has informed a new emphasis on the basics, which helps keep elite athletes in better condition, over longer periods,” said Dr. Dorshimer, who has served as internal medicine consultant for the National Hockey League at the 1998 and 2002 Olympics, as team internist with the Flyers, Phantoms, Eagles, and Kixx, and as consulting internist to the Pennsylvania Ballet.
Dr. Joyner noted that Dara Torres, who has garnered enormous media attention after making the US Olympic swimming team again at age 41, is unusual, but not unprecedented. “The first thing to remember is that Dara Torres is a sprinter, and her event lasts about 25 seconds. It is mostly about the muscle's ability to generate power. She will not be at her VO2max during that 25-second race. When we look at endurance sports, there is a long history of people in their late 30s and early 40s doing well in the Olympics. What typically happens is people's VO2max starts to decline in their early 30s. The highly trained athlete can delay that decline until the late 30s or early 40s. With training, the athlete starts at a higher level and doesn't start to decline as soon. The other important thing is that the rate of decline is slower in the athlete. The normal sedentary person loses about 10% per decade starting about age 30. Somebody able to continue to train very hard loses only about 5% per decade.”
Better management of postexertion recovery is probably also keeping older athletes competitive longer. Dr. Dorshimer said that over the past 2 to 3 years research shows that glucose and protein loading immediately after exertion, a technique that has been widely put into practice by elite and by amateur athletes, is more effective than delayed replenishment. “We now know that the muscle [absorbs] more of the nutrients if you take them in right after hard training or competition, when the muscle is starving, than if you have a shower, change, and go out for a nice dinner.”
More sophisticated approaches to training also help including attention to rest after exertion, which Dr. Dorshimer said is even more important for the older athlete. Torres, for example, has reduced her weekly training from 65,000 meters a week to 30,000-35,000 meters a week, with fast sprints only once a week for no more than 300 meters.
Dr. Dorshimer said that maintaining optimal function at the elite level requires a base of good aerobic and core strength training plus rigorous sport-specific training. “Trainers have come up with better ways to design long-term training programs and with better ways to rehabilitate injuries to recover strength, range of motion, and function.” He also pointed to advances in orthopaedic surgery techniques, which can now salvage some athletic injuries that would have been career-ending 20 years ago.
Translating research into practice
For the clinician caring for the weekend athlete, the serious amateur, or the local sports team, Dr. Dorshimer had three pieces of advice:
“First, ice anything that hurts after a work-out, game, or competition. Second, replenish carbs and protein right after competition or a hard training session. Third, advise the older athlete to pay careful attention to rest between activities.”
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