Sports
Sheridan Senior Wins Gold At Wyoming Senior Olympics
Published
5 months agoon
A Sheridan resident won gold in an event that is part of the Olympics, but he didn’t have to go to France to win them.
67-year old Mark Engelman won 7 gold medals in swimming at the Wyoming Senior Olympics that were held last week in Cheyenne.
He says he’s been participating in the games for some time, and when he first started at the young age of 50, he got a reality check that going against other seniors is not as easy as one might think.
“I’ve been doing it since I turned 50. We had the games here in 2007 and I thought I could rewrite the record books, but quickly found out I couldn’t. I was beaten by a guy who was 20 years older than me, and I’d love to return that favor someday.”
Engelman says he swam one year in high school, and didn’t do much in that sport after that until the Senior Olympics.
He explains why he got involved in the games.
“It’s not so much a competition per se anymore. It’s more of a celebration of life for me anyway. I used it as motivation to quit smoking the next year, so I haven’t smoked since 2008, and that was the biggest reason that I had gotten into this instead.”
Engelman says he’s been living in Sheridan since 1980.