Valleywide : Veteran Strikes Gold in His Golden Years

Don Starler is 60 going on 16, and he’s got the medals to prove it.

“I’m in the best shape of my life,” said Starler, the Winnetka athlete who captured three golds and one silver at last week’s Ninth National Veterans Golden Age Games in Dallas. “My girlfriend thinks I’m a teen-ager, and I told her she’s not far off.”

Starler is not the only senior star from the San Fernando Valley. In all, 11 won medals at the games, which are open to veterans age 55 and older, who receive care through a Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center. The Valley athletes work out at the Sepulveda Veterans Medical Center in North Hills.

Starler, who competed in bicycling, swimming and the pentathlon, played football in high school, but didn’t start taking serious care of his body until the early 1980s. His cholesterol was high and a diet wasn’t the total answer.

“They said that exercise would help, and the gym would be available,” said Starler, who owns an optical company in Arleta.

He started going a few times a week and hasn’t slowed down since. His typical workout includes weightlifting, bicycling and swimming.

As much as he savored taking home the gold, Starler derived more enjoyment from “seeing the guys again.”

In all, the co-ed field included about 600 athletes who competed in several age groups: 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74 and 80 and over. The oldest competitor was 98.

Other Valley medal winners are W.D. Hanson, Charles Snowden, Sherman Schwartz, Frank Ellis, Steven Palmer, Murray Propper, Milo Hastings, Abe Englander, Dale Walton and John Schaefer.