Veterans Going for the Gold and Camaraderie

Alice Barszcz rolled her wheelchair forward, placed her bowling ball on a ramp and let it roll down the lane.

Although the 81-year-old New Jersey woman wasn’t happy that she missed a spare, she was ecstatic to be part of the 16th annual National Veterans Golden Age Games.

“I love the competition, camaraderie and the chance to see friends I only see once a year,” she said. “It keeps me young.”

Barszcz was among more than 500 military veterans gathered in Los Angeles this week for the national sports and recreational competition, which ended Friday.

Athletes 55 and older vied for medals in 34 events, including swimming, bicycling, bowling, golf, table tennis, dominoes, horseshoes and shuffleboard, organizers said.

More than a sporting event, the weeklong competition is a showcase for the therapeutic value of sports, fitness and recreation in the lives of older Americans, said John Fitzgerald, games co-coordinator.

Any veteran receiving care at VA medical facilities is eligible to compete in the games, which are co-sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Department of Veterans Affairs, with the help of thousands of local volunteers.

Golden Age Games athletes, in a system patterned after the Olympic Games, live in a “village” and travel via shuttle bus to event venues scattered around a host city.

This year, the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City served as the athletes’ village, where the opening and closing ceremonies were held.

Barszcz and about 90 other athletes boarded a bus bound for Brunswick Matador Bowl in Northridge on Friday morning. There, visually impaired bowlers were helped by volunteer guides and wheelchair bowlers placed their bowling balls atop ramps that were set up on the lanes.

After her final turn, Barszcz lamented that she was probably out of medal contention because she scored only 91, well below her 110 average.

“But at 81 years and 10 months, I think I’m doing pretty good,” she said.

Gilbert Jadwin of Chicago, who had snared a bronze medal earlier in wheelchair table tennis, was looking forward to going for the gold in adaptive bowling. But even if he had come away from the games empty-handed, he said, it wouldn’t have mattered because he had gotten something worth more to him than medals.

“The games have given me so much pride and joy,” he said, “and a feeling that I belong.”