For some, turning 40 may be over the hill, but Vernon Gingrich said 40 is just the beginning.
“Sometimes you are at the top of your game at 40 years old,” Gingrich said.
Gingrich and more than 600 others will compete in this year’s Arkansas Senior Olympics, which are designed for adults 45 years of age and older. The events will kick off Friday with weightlifting at ProFitness on Malvern Avenue in Hot Springs. The Olympics will last through November, with most events taking place in Little Rock.
However, executive director Greg Eberdt said there is a possibility that more events will be scheduled in Hot Springs, or even Benton or Bryant. Eberdt said he hopes to have that matter settled in the coming week.
“The Senior Olympics have been in Hot Springs since the 1980s, but we wanted to move it closer to Little Rock and other central areas to see how they’d do and maybe pick up some new people to compete,” Eberdt said.
Gingrich will compete in the track and field events on Sept. 14 and 15 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
“I have been competing in the Senior Olympics for around 14 years. I am 72 years old,” Gingrich said. “I was a competitive water skier in California before I started doing this, and I did that for about 40 years.
“I still water-ski, just not competitively. In seventh grade, I started pole-vaulting, but I started water-skiing when I was 6 or 7 years old.”
Gingrich, who also plays softball, said his biggest thing is just trying to stay active.
“Both of my parents were dead by the time they were my age,” he said, “so the more active you are, the healthier you are.”
Gingrich’s personal-best pole vault in college was 14 feet.
“I pole-vaulted up until 1993 or 1994, and I jumped 13 feet in high school, and 14 feet in junior college,” he said. “I went to work as an automobile mechanic with my father at a Cadillac dealership in Huntington Beach, California, and I was in the same business for 37 years.”
For the Senior Olympics, Gingrich also competes in the 50-yard dash, throws the discus and participates in the high jump. But he said pole-vaulting is his main event.
“I’ve got two grandsons, and they are 11 and 12, and they would be good pole-vaulters,” Gingrich said. “They come out here from California once a year, so the next time they come out, I am going to work with them.”
Gingrich said he moved to Arkansas because he was looking for a change, and he enjoys the lakes.
“We had property here that we bought in 1991, and we just started coming back every year,” he said. “We built a vacation home here, and we bought some property around town.
“I retired in 2001, and I moved out here in 2004, permanently.”
About once a week, he travels to Black Springs and works with students at the Arkansas Vault Club that was founded by Morry Sanders and Steve Irwin. Gingrich has also been a volunteer at Hot Springs High School as a pole-vaulting coach for three seasons now.
“Some kids come out, and they had never had an idea about pole-vaulting,” Gingrich said. “Coach will bring somebody out that isn’t a very good athlete and say, ‘Maybe you can try this.’ But the thing is, for pole-vaulting, you have to be an athlete.
“I enjoy the kids. I have about five or six boys and about five or six girls. Some of them are real serious about it; some are more casual.”
Gingrich said one of his favorite things about participating in the Senior Olympics is the camaraderie among the athletes.
“We are just trying to promote senior activity,” he said, “but seeing them year after year, it is like water-skiing or any other sport. The best part is just seeing the guys.
“You get there, and you get excited. It doesn’t matter how well you do because everybody is helping everybody. Everybody is wanting to do their best.”
Eberdt has been the executive director for the Arkansas Senior Olympics since last April. He was a former competitor in cycling, and when he retired, he was asked if he was interested in taking over the position.
“We have well over 100 to 150 athletes in the Hot Springs area, but overall, the number of athletes in Arkansas who are competing on a normal basis is close to 700,” Eberdt said. “We still have a lot of people who come in from out of state.”
Eberdt said one of the reasons the annual event draws so many competitors is because it acts as a qualifier for the National Senior Games. This year’s national competition will be in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in June 2019.
“That is what makes us unique,” Eberdt said. “We are the only qualifying place in the state of Arkansas.
“People are able to come to our games and try to qualify and go to nationals. That’s why we get a lot of competitors. We are just excited to have them come to our state and compete.”
Some of the competitions that have been confirmed for this month are badminton on Sept. 13 at the West Central Community Center in Little Rock and swimming on Sept. 15 at UALR. The bowling competition will take place Sept. 21 at Professor Bowl in Little Rock. For a full list of events or for more information, visit www.arseniorolympics.org.
Eberdt said the organization needs event leaders, directors and volunteers for all of the events. Anyone who would like to volunteer in any capacity is asked to call Eberdt at (501) 321-1441.
“The biggest thing is that we are trying to raise awareness for the Senior Olympics and the health benefits it provides,” he said. “Even if people have not done it in their whole life, most people are really happy to find out there are sports they can compete in and compete against other people in their own age group.”
He said that last year, his oldest competitor was a 95-year-old swimmer, and Eberdt also had two other gentlemen who were in their 90s competing as well.
“Our coolest competitor was pretty amazing,” Eberdt said. “His name was Mr. Watson, and he was from Dallas, and he did 11 track-and-field events.
“We are looking forward to, hopefully, having them all back this year to compete.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.