40 is the new 30

One of the fears or worries of an athlete is the time when his performance deteriorates due to age. The fear of not being as competitive anymore as when he was several years younger forces an athlete to retire and end up hoping to land a coaching job. In sports, the early 20's is prime, the late 20's is peak and the early 30's is planning for what lies ahead and thinking about raising the kids well. The early 30's is when an athlete makes a graceful exit from competitiveness. The sponsors and coaches all start looking for someone to carry their banner when their star athlete crosses the last numbers of the calendar.

Throughout the years, sports science and nutrition has become so advanced that years have been taken off from an athlete's age in terms of competitiveness, resulting to longer stay in the sports that an athlete dominates, or better body recoveries even at an age when athletes should be retiring. Athletes now have learned to defy age and continous to compete in races before were thought to be for the younger athletes only.

At the age of 41 years, Dara Torres won three silver medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She holds the distinction of being the 1st American to compete in five Olympics: 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2008 and the reason why she didn't compete in 1996 and 2004 is because she just sat it out.

In 2009, Torres won the 50m freestyle at US National Championships to qualify to swim at the 2009 World Championships in Rome. Torres will also compete in the 50m butterfly in Rome. This will be the first time since 1986 that Torres will compete in the World Championships.

Dara Torres

Lance Armstrong may be considered a household name in sports. Why wouldn't he? The "Boss" won the grueling 3,500 kilometer, 21-stage, 23 days Tour De France 7 times, from 1999 - 2005. Armstrong survived testicular cancer which, in 1996, metastasized to his brains and lungs and his prognosis was "poor".

He announced his retirement from competitive cycling in 2005 and focused his attention to Livestrong Foundation.

Armstrong returned to competitive cycling in 2009, competing in Giro D' Italia where he placed 12th, besting 157 other riders.

His celebrated return to Tour De France tested Armstrong's physical limits. This was the tour he dominated for 7 years and everyone expected him to finish strong despite not competing in the last three years and breaking his collar bone in a crash in March, 2009.

After 23 days, 21 stages and 3,500 kilometers, Armstrong was at the podium, placing 3rd in a field thought to be the toughest Tour De France field in history. He will be back next year with his new team, RadioShack. Lance Armstrong will turn 38 in September.

Lance Armstrong

Natascha Badmann, or the "Swiss Miss" in the triathlon community, is the first European woman to win the Ford Ironman World Championships, a competition many consider to be the toughest race in the world. The race consists of a 3.8km swim in open sea, 180km of bike and a 42.195km of run all done in succession.

Badmann is coached by husband Toni Hassler and is well known for her positive approach to triathlon depicted in her unending smile during the whole duration of the race. She has won 6 Ironman World Championships, the last in 2005, when she was 38 years of age.

Badmann placed 4th in 2006 and suffered a bike crash in 2007 which resulted to a DNF ( did not finish ). In 2008, despite her lack of training, she got into the starting line at Kailua-Kona and raced but failed to finish again.

Badmann will again try to extend her record by winning a 7th Ironman in this year's World Championship, at the age of 42.

Natascha Badmann

The numbers are changing. What trend there was in the sporting community, age-wise, is now different. Mid-life crisis perhaps?

In the upcoming Cobra Ironman 70.3 in Camarines Sur, out of 373 registered so far, 96 belong to the 35-39 age group, the biggest group in the race. This is followed by 86 in the 30-34 age group with the 40-44 athletes at close third with 80. The younger ones? They are at a poor 4th with 44 for the 25-29 age group, while the 18-24 is 3rd to last with 6, besting out age-groupers belonging to 60-64 ( with 5 ) and 65 and above ( with 1 ).

Some say that the mid to late 30's people are those who have already "made" themselves and are the ones who can afford a few luxuries in life, such as indulging in sports.

With these developments and the continuous influx of performance-enhancing vitamins, food supplements and drugs ( yes! including Viagra, Cialis and Levitra ), I'm sure there will come a time when we all can really say 'Yeah, LIFE BEGINS AT 40!'.

Reading glasses anyone?

Deo P.