GAIL WHITE Competitors test their mettle and take home medals -- again

It isn't every day you get to spend the morning with olympic athletes, let alone five-time olympic champions.
I had the honor and pleasure of meeting the "Carrington Crushers," senior olympic champions from 1999-2003 in the Clemente Ambulance Senior Olympic Funfest.
Residents from more than 35 health-care facilities participated in the daylong event at the Holiday Inn MetroPlex in Liberty Township in September. Competitions were in 11 events: bowling, bingo, softball, shuffleboard, darts, spelling bee, horseshoes, golf, walking races, wheelchair races and basketball.
As they have done for the past four years, the Carrington Crushers from Carrington South Rehabilitation Health Care Center in Youngstown brought home the trophy of champions.
Many won medals
Along with their team trophy, many of the eight participants brought home individual medals.
Susan Sokol was the big winner of the team. She garnered medals in every event she competed in. Meeting this sweet, quiet woman, I must admit I was surprised by such success. Susan seems more the type of athlete who would stop and let her competitor win. But beneath that sweet demeanor is a feisty contender.
Susan won a silver medal in the bowling competition and a silver in the walking races.
"You walk from one end of the hall to the other and back," she says, explaining the perimeters of the race. "But no running!"
It was the softball competition that was the most memorable for Susan -- and everyone around her!
"That's wrong-way Susan," Joe Herman, a fellow Crusher, tells me.
"Wrong-way Susan?" I asked.
Smiling sheepishly and giggling, Susan explains, "I threw the softball backward."
As Susan went to throw her first ball in the softball competition, the ball slipped out of her hand on the wind up. She had the same problem with her second try.
"I hollered 'Fore' twice," team captain, Juan Davila says, laughing. "Next year, I'm going to stand 50 feet away!"
Won the gold
In true olympic form, Susan did not give up. She wound up for her third and final throw, kept a good grip on the ball and threw it 48 feet to win the gold medal.
Chuck Farrell exhibited similar characteristics of perseverance in the horseshoe competition.
"I won no medals," this first-year Crusher concedes. "But I almost killed Gretchen."
Gretchen Crater is the activities director at Carrington South. She noticed Chuck having difficulty hitting the horseshoe post.
"I'm an old farm boy," Chuck teases. "I'm used to throwing the horseshoes while they are still on the horse. They were too light."
Gretchen stood near the post, trying to direct Chuck's eyes. He nearly rung her!
Robert Welch was wearing his medal when I met him. At 80 years old, he became an olympic champion, winning a bronze in golf.
"Have you golfed your whole life?" I asked him.
"No," Robert responded.
"You could tell too," Chuck interjects in the group's usual fun-loving manner. "He wasn't wearing plaid pants."
Marjorie Connolly brought home a bronze medal in bowling.
"I had a strike and a couple of spares," she says in explaining her score. "That was left-handed and in a wheelchair."
Nothing can stop a true olympic champion.
Iula Mostellar competed in bowling and bingo. She brought home no medals, but the Crushers plan to change that next year.
"She's murder with a deck of cards," Juan says, shaking his head as if he'd just been beaten by her. "Any kind of card game."
The Crushers will try to enlist the olympic committee into adding a card game to the competition next year.
In the meantime, the Crushers leader, Juan, will be keeping his team in shape for next year. After all, they have a legacy to uphold.
"Next year, we're going to call and just have them mail the trophy," he says jokingly, knowing full-well he enjoys the competition more than the medals.
Still, it sounds like a challenge to the 34 other competing health-care facilities to me.
gwhite@vindy.com