The Competitive Edge: Still Razor Sharp
By: Julia M. Klein; Source: AARP Bulletin Date Posted: 2005-07-01 13:14:00-04:00
Three years ago, as he watched a friend run in the USATF National Masters Indoor Championships in Boston, filmmaker Bill Haney found himself marveling at the older athletes participating in the event. He was struck by “the joyfulness and purposefulness” of these athletes, some in their seventies and eighties, their competitive fervor undimmed.
Haney eventually zeroed in on five women, ages 50 to 82, with compelling stories that they were willing to share. The result is a 79-minute documentary, Racing Against the Clock, which, after its debut at film festivals, will have a limited release in theaters this summer. (It’s also available on DVD.)
The documentary was filmed over five months in 2003 as the women competed in various national events and, finally, the World Masters Athletic Championships in Puerto Rico. Haney, who wrote, directed and produced Racing Against the Clock, alternates footage of his subjects on and off the field with interviews that delve compassionately into their bouts with poverty, illness and self-doubt.
Haney, who lives in Wayland, Mass., spoke recently with journalist Julia M. Klein. Some excerpts:
Q: How did you first tap into this world of older athletes?
Bill Haney: I have a friend named Sarah Lawson who had come into the world of masters running very late. She had never before run competitively. In her late thirties she discovered, to her surprise, that she was extremely fast. So I went to the Indoor Nationals in the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston to cheer for her as a supportive friend. She is now 40. As I was watching, I couldn’t help but marvel at the 65-, 70-, 75-, 80-, 85-year-olds preparing to competitively sprint the 400-meter dash. It was spectacular.
One of things that drew me was a 101-year-old man, Everett Hosack, who was running the 100-meter dash. He also competed in the javelin, the shot put and the hammer. He’s now passed away, but he competed until he was 102. His story was that he had competed until 1919 as a high-schooler, had gotten a job on the railroads and worked all his life. He was 80, a small-scale farmer in central Ohio, when his wife died. In recovering from his grief, one evening he mowed an oval track in his cornfield and started jogging. By his mid-nineties, he was traveling the world, competing.
Q: Were you an athlete yourself?
BH: I was a skilled high school athlete and a modest collegiate athlete. I played primarily hockey. [But] I have come, through the process of making this film, to see being an athlete as a state of mind.
Q: What made you decide to focus on women?
BH: We initially followed 16 or 18 characters. I flew to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and spent two days with Everett. We found some great stories among the men, breathtaking stories: men who had received Purple Hearts in World War II, who, when they were running, would bleed from the scars left over from [their wounds]; a man who was the 17th of 18 children, who grew up in a cold-water flat and is now sprinting in the National Championships. Nevertheless, the dramatic arc of the women’s experience captured most of the extraordinariness of the men’s—and then some.
Q: Why is that?
BH: The opportunities for men to express themselves athletically have always existed, whereas discrimination, if only in the financial resources available, and culturally, has highly constricted the opportunities in sports for some of these women. Margaret Hinton, now 85 [82 in the film], as a youngster in the fields of Texas rode horses bareback and pole-vaulted with saplings cut from pecan trees. But when she got into school they told her she had to stop playing sports because it would damage her organs for reproduction. When Phil [Philippa] Raschker asked to pole-vault at the Senior Olympics, there was no pole-vaulting for women in high schools or colleges. She said she would like to do it in the Senior Olympics, and they said: “You’ve got to be kidding. When we said women can do any sport men can do, we didn’t mean pole-vaulting.”
Phil initially had to pole-vault with men because there were not any women. Because of this example, women began to be able to pole-vault in high schools and colleges. When Phil was in her fifties, the United States had to choose the three best in the country. She was the third-best [at 53]. They were 18, 19 and 53.
Q: She is a real pacesetter.
BH: She is an extraordinary athlete, both in spirit and in performance. To me, the other women each stand out for a different reason. Conquering cancer three times [as Pat Peterson did] isn’t something that [Phil] could do, as she said. Moving as a German to the United States immediately after World War II was not easy for Leonore McDaniels. She had never competed in any sport till her late fifties. Now she has a room covered with gold medals from competitions all across the world.
Q: Why did McDaniels get involved with sports?
BH: I think she was bored. She needed a new challenge. So for me it really isn’t about athletics; it’s about folks all finding a way to express what is unique to them and to challenge themselves to continue to develop.
Q: Phil seems like she is a mentor to many of the other women.
BH: She’s an incredibly giving woman. The president of the Senior Olympics says she embodies the Olympic ideal, to test herself and to inspire. She’s not focused really on beating anybody. She’s just focused on improving, to be all that she can be.
Q: During the film, she’s competing hurt, with a knee injury.
BH: All of these women are, in varying ways, exceedingly resilient. They model lots of things for us. One of them is physical and emotional resilience. Jackie Board was homeless with three children. Pat Peterson was the oldest person to receive a stem cell transplant in the country. The film is about more than athletics.
Q: There’s a real intimacy to some of the interviews. How did you get these women to trust you?
BH: They and I were united in a common goal. There are tens of millions of Americans who could be helped by the examples of these women. There are 56 million Americans over 50, [but only] 9 million get any form of exercise. Some of these people feel like it’s too late to start, some have had cancer, some had a pacemaker. Some have been poor. Jackie Board has been as poor as any of them. These women had most of the obstacles you can imagine, and they found ways around those obstacles.
The women’s goal, and my goal, is that people see the film and hopefully [they] will enjoy it and to some extent be inspired by the example of these women to go after things they would be happier going after—maybe learning to paint.
Q: So not just sport?
BH: There’s a physiological advantage to some form of exercise. At a time when many people suffer from depression and anxiety, committing to some form of personal expression through exercise would make people healthier and happier. It’s a good choice, but not the only choice.
Q: Is there a different spirit at the masters events than at competitions involving younger athletes?
BH: It’s extraordinary, the difference. I go to lots of sporting events. As the father of three, I go to kids’ sporting events, collegiate events, professional events. There was a level of playfulness and joyfulness and healthful community in this world of older athletes that I had never seen before.
Older folks can be gentle and compassionate and loving, all in ways that are harder for younger people to be at times. Why is the atmosphere of competition so different? They’ve gotten to the stage in life where they’re comfortable with who they are. Their aspirations are substantially in the moment.
Q: What sort of preconceptions did you have that proved wrong?
BH: I just sort of expected that your competitive spirit diminished as your body’s capacity did. To some extent, I discovered that was really wrong. These folks’ spirit was as vital and dynamic and intense as any I’ve ever experienced. Their physical capacity was less in some cases. They were determined to find the edge of what they could do. . . . I would have thought the fire had dimmed slightly. In some ways, I think it was burning brighter.
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