Columnist Dean Juipe: Fit, healthy old-timers on nice run

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, July 29, 2003 | 9 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Of course you've noticed it. Who hasn't?

Old guys, old by athletic standards at least, have gone on a rampage. They're winning major sporting events and competing for championships and honors that ordinarily are the sole province of athletes sometimes half their age.

It's coincidental only in that there has been a rash of senior successes of late. But it's not coincidental that Andre Agassi, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, David Robinson and Lance Armstrong have found themselves hoisting trophies and seen their likenesses on newspaper and magazine covers.

There are others, too, such as Evander Holyfield, Tom Watson, Craig Stadler and Peter Jacobsen, and a female, Martina Navratilova, as well.

Each -- with the exception of Stadler -- accents conditioning, sometimes to an extreme. And each is defying Father Time by excelling at a stage in their lives when many of their contemporaries have long since called it quits.

Humans reach their physical and athletic peak sometime between the ages of 18 and 30. There are no exceptions.

The body begins to break down and the internal, physiologic tendencies are identical in each of us.

But what separates those who can measure, see and feel their abilities decreasing and those who can sustain a high level of athletic activity beyond their peak years is directly related to conditioning. Those who work out and push themselves will have a greater rate of recovery from an athletic event, and, consequently, will be better able to retain their skills in spite of their age limitations.

It's fitness and conditioning, as simple as that.

Agassi (33) and Armstrong (31) aren't old by everyday standards, yet they compete in sports in which men their age are considered obsolete. Agassi will be the No. 1 seed in the upcoming U.S. Open and Armstrong just won his fifth consecutive Tour de France, and they're workaholics when it comes to the gym.

Clemens (40) and Bonds (39) are baseball's best known workout fanatics and both are having great seasons, Clemens having won his 300th game and Bonds leading the National League in home runs.

Robinson (37) retired from the San Antonio Spurs last month but went out in a blaze of glory, contributing to their NBA championship and adorning a Sports Illustrated cover.

Holyfield (40) was in Las Vegas last week to announce a big fight Oct. 4 with James Toney, and he looked sleek and fit as ever.

Navratilova (46) added to her Grand Slam resume by being part of the mixed-doubles championship team at Wimbledon.

And the golfers are on a startling run of standout play that has forced the experts to rethink the belief that younger is better. Jacobsen (49) won last week's PGA tournament, Stadler (50) won a week earlier (and a week before that, too, on the Champions tour) and Watson (53) has, in the past few weeks, finished: 28th at the U.S. Open after an opening 65; second at the U.S. Senior Open; second at the Ford Seniors Players Championship; 18th at the British Open after a closing 69; and, Sunday, first at the Senior British Open.

These are remarkable achievements by remarkable athletes with at least one thing in common: They know what it's like to sweat.