The National Senior Games (Senior Olympics) are a

sports competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indivi ...

for

senior citizens Old age refers to ages nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human beings, and is thus the end of the human biological life cycle, life cycle. Terms and euphemisms for people at this age include old people, the elderly (worldwide usage ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is conducted by the National Senior Games Association (NSGA) once every two years. Akin to the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

, it is a multi-sport event devoted to adults above the age of 50. It consists of regional competitions held yearly in all states of the US.

History

The games were founded by Warren Blaney. In 1969, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission approved the 1970 meet. In June 1970 the first Senior Olympics took place at the Los Angeles Coliseum (1970 known as Senior Sports International Meet). The games continued in the 1970s and 1980s in the Los Angeles and Orange County, California. Today the meet is known as the Senior Games (or Senior Olympics). The Senior Games are now held in every state in the USA. In 1985 National Senior Olympics Organization (NSOO) was formed, and in 1990 NSGA took over control of the Senior Games. A 1987 version attracted 2,500 people. Recent attendance (

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

, 2007) had over 10,000 competitors and 20,000 spectators, with oldest competitors being over 100 years old. In 2021 there are currently five regions under NSGA: Great Lakes, Northeast, Pacific, Southeast, and West. These national games are supported by the National Senior Games Association. The Huntsman World Senior Games is an international senior sports competition begun in 1987. The 27 athletic events held in Southern Utah begin with the torch lighting in traditional Olympic fashion during the Opening Ceremonies.

Summary

Summer

2022 National Senior Games M50 800 meter run

The Senior Summer Olympics are conducted from 1970 the present day.

Winter

The Senior Winter Olympics were held from 2000 to 2011.

State Games

NSGA State Regions:https://nsga.com/nsga-regions/ #

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

(12): Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, D.C. #

Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

(12): Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia #

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

(8): Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin #

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

(9): Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wyoming #

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

(10): Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington

Sports

Individual Sports Competitions in the Senior Games: *

Archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

Bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

Cornhole Cornhole (also known regionally as sack toss, or bags) is a lawn game popular in North America in which players or teams take turns throwing fabric bean bags at a raised, angled board with a hole in its far end. The goal of the game is to score ...

Cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

Pickleball Pickleball is an indoor or outdoor racket/paddle sport where two players (singles), or four players (doubles), hit a perforated hollow polymer ball over a net using solid-faced paddles. Opponents on either side of the net hit the ball back and ...

* Powerwalk *

Race Walk Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Race judges carefully asse ...

Racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase velo ...

* Road Race *

Shuffleboard Shuffleboard (more precisely deck shuffleboard, and also known as floor shuffleboard) is a game in which players use cues to push weighted discs, sending them gliding down a narrow court, with the purpose of having them come to rest within a ma ...

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

Table Tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

Track & Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

Triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the t ...

Team Sports Competitions: *

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

Beach Volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

Non-Ambulatory Sports Competitions: * Non-Ambulatory Bowling * Non-Ambulatory Cornhole * Ambulatory Shuffleboard

References

FAQ Frequently Asked Questions

External links

Bay Area Senior Games

Wyoming Winter Senior Olympics

Wyoming Summer Senior Olympics

National Senior Games Association

NSGA Results and Records

NSGA Dates and locations of previous Senior Games

World Senior Games

* Deborah Wheeler
Local octogenarian wins in Olympics
The Walton Sun, July 5, 2007 * Dan Farrand
Golden memories: Local athletes win medals at Senior Olympics
NewsTimesLive, Jul 06 2007 * Associated Press
Gray grit: boom times for Senior Games
July 4, 2007
Masters Events

PBS Documentary, Age of Champions

State by State Senior Games links

Wisconsin Senior Olympics

World Masters Games
{{Multi-sport events Senior sports competitions Multi-sport events in the United States United States Seniors Sports competitions in Canada Recurring sporting events established in 1987 1970 establishments in the United States 1987 establishments in the United States