On Jan 21, 5:31 am, MagillaGorilla <
[email protected]> wrote:
> [email protected] wrote:
> > On Jan 20, 11:02 pm, MagillaGorilla <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >>[email protected] wrote:
>
> >>>Jeannie Longo isn't the only senior out there. Beth Reid, AKA Heiden,
> >>>is still winning races at age 48 in cross country skiing:
> >>>http://host358.ipowerweb.com/~swixraci/index.php?Itemid=6&id=132&opti...
> >>>Her kids are pretty strong as well.
>
> >>>-ilan
>
> >>Yeah,
>
> >>I'm sure women's cross country skiing for women over 45 is real
> >>competitive. Millions of women that age all over the world train for
> >>such competitions.
>
> >>Oh no wait, no, I'm sorry. Just 6 women do it.
>
> >>Magilla
>
> > She won the entire women's division.
>
> > -ilan
>
> Okay, so instead of 6 women doing it, maybe 23 women do it. And out of
> those 23, maybe 4 are serious. So she beat 4 women. The rest are
> recreational skiiers.
>
> Big whoop.
>
> Let's see her beat some Olympians.
9,000 at the Birkie:
http://www.birkie.com/
I'm guessing more than 23 over-45 women, but you can look it up, and
yes, it is a "big whoop" compared to anything in cycling, including
RAGBRAI <g>. And that's just Cable. New England, Rockies, Sierra
Nevadas... lotta XC Ski folks out there.
"Beating Olympians"? I think she already did that in three different
sports-- ski, skate, bike.
World RR Champ, 1980, also US RR champ. Also won Coors Classic.
(Wiki):
For most of her speed skating career, Heiden was still a junior, but
she already belonged to the absolute world top. This led to the
situation that she participated in both junior and "regular"
championships during the same season several times, both with great
successes. This was most obvious in 1979, when she became World
Allround Champion and, three weeks afterwards, World Junior Allround
Champion, while at both championships winning all four distances. In
addition, in between those two championships, she also won silver at
the World Sprint Championships, winning both 1,000 m races.
Much was expected of her the following year at the 1980 Winter
Olympics, but an ankle injury prevented her from skating at her full
potential. Despite that, she still managed to win a bronze medal on
the 3,000 m. (end Wiki quote)
Masters in Civil Engineering, married, children, lives in Palo Alto.
Her brother Eric is an MD.
So, top-drawer accomplishments in sport, and a life after. And she
still skis (no idea IRT Eric's contemporary athletic participation).
In rebuttal to your usual "failure to be impressed", I'd offer the
idea that, like in cycling and other "amateur" sports, you can go
enter some little race somewhere and have to get past the Beth Reids
of the world in order to win. That's a good dose of "legitimacy" IMHO.
It's also a fine opportunity for some to readjust their social
adjustment <g> (instead of crying "no fair!") but that's another
story. --D-y
