Bob Hellmann of Milliken, Colorado, pauses before releasing his arrow Friday morning at the Laramie Trap Club. Hellmann was competing in the archery competition of this year’s Wyoming Senior Olympics.
Volunteer Pennie Espeland, left, hugs E.G. Meyer of Laramie as he stands on the podium at the Louis S. Madrid Sports Complex. Meyer, who is 98 years old, took first place in the 95 and over division of the 100 meter dash.
Bob Hellmann of Milliken, Colorado, pauses before releasing his arrow Friday morning at the Laramie Trap Club. Hellmann was competing in the archery competition of this year’s Wyoming Senior Olympics.
Volunteer Pennie Espeland, left, hugs E.G. Meyer of Laramie as he stands on the podium at the Louis S. Madrid Sports Complex. Meyer, who is 98 years old, took first place in the 95 and over division of the 100 meter dash.
After two days of competition, Laramie is hosting the final day of the 2017 Wyoming Senior Olympics today as 270 people 50 and older compete in several events such as track and field, archery and bowling.
Gillette athlete Paul Maller said he has competed in several of the track and field events and enjoys participating in the games because it brings people who enjoy similar events together.
“I enjoy them — it’s great people, all great people — you don’t find that many kindred spirits just going to (recreation) centers,” he said.
“There are people who work out (at the recreation center but finding) people that do track events is kind of fun to run into.”
Maller said he hopes to be able to hold his own against older competitors in the coming years.
“They’re also good role models for when I get older,” he said.
Several athletes competed in the games previously and have returned to Wyoming to do it again. Athlete Suzatte Lee said she came from California to the 2016 games to compete and is enjoying this year’s events.
“I love it, it’s my second year actually coming to Wyoming,” Lee said. “I went to Sheridan last year.”
When a community hosts the Senior Olympics, it has two years, the first year is more of a practice round for the community and athletes.
The second year is a qualifying year where participants could go to nationals, City of Laramie Recreation Manager Jodi Guerin said.
“For both of us — as a host community as well as the participants — they can come and try events (and) see how we’re going to run it, make sure that we have bugs worked out of our system,” Guerin said.
“This is one of our off-years — it is not a qualifying year — so you qualify for nationals if you win your age category, the (1st 2nd and 3rd placers) overall qualify for nationals as well as the top three in Wyoming.”
Wyoming is an open state, which means participants do not have to live in the state to take part in the games. Having open states like Wyoming helps bring athletes from states where there isn’t a senior Olympics.
“People come from really all over Wyoming,” Guerin said. “We have, I think, 28 communities represented — 14 states and 270 competitors,” “We are considered an open state which means that people can come from other states and qualify if they get one of the top three places.”
Maller said if anyone wants to compete in the next years Senior Olympics, they should research the events they are interested in and to not be afraid to come.
“Don’t be afraid to show up — there’s not that many people here — everybody has fun and also I would say YouTube your events you want to do, that’s how I learned there’s YouTube instruction videos for everything for every age group,” he said.
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