Senior Games in Poland are as popular as Olympics

17 September, 2012

Olympics and the Paralympics are not the only popular sporting events, Senior Games, recently held in Poland were a big success too. Given the popularity of these games, countries like England, Spain and Belgium are vying to become host nations.

BETTER LATE than never fits perfectly with Alina Wieczoriewicz, who learned swimming at the age of 60 years. She is now the oldest competitor at the Senior Games in Poland. For the 200 metre freestyle, she chose the breaststroke. Quickly outpaced by her rivals, Alina stops the clock at 6 minutes.

She told AFP, “I am happy. Swimming is a fabulous sport. The atmosphere is super. I swam very well but I wish I had a little more power.” With nine more events to go, Alina needs a lot of stamina. She is one of the thousands older athletes, most of them Poles, competing at the Senior Games held this year in North Eastern Poland.

Modeled on the Olympics, the games were launched in the US in 1985 before having their first European edition in the Netherlands in 2009. Ton Kenhuis, who participated in the Senior Games in Europe said, “Trekking, swimming and other games have their masters in every two or four years but the idea of the Olympics is all types of people together, all people together.”

Although the sporting spirit here matches the passion of the Olympics and the paralympics, the Senior Games can't use the international title, as they have not been accredited by the International Olympic committee. Funding is provided by regions hosting the games. “Our goal is to create necessary structure of these games to be held on a regular basis, once every two years for example. There has to be an international organization supervising all of this,” Jacek Protas, the president of the Warmia i Mazury regional council said. The Polish hosting has been a great success. Belgium, Spain and England are vying for the next games but for now the location and the timing of the next round of games are yet to be fixed.