Get in the game

Even if you lose at the Alaska International Senior Games, you win.

"If you like to laugh and you like to have fun," said Diann Darnall, the president of the Alaska International Senior Games board of directors. "This is for you."

The AISG are coming up Aug. 8-17 in Fairbanks. And though the early-bird registration ended June 30, there is still time to enter.

A qualifying event

The AISG is a qualifying event for the National Senior Games, which this year takes place July 24-Aug. 4 in Des Moines, Iowa. That means some athletes will compete in Iowa based on their results from the previous summer.

"Some Alaska athletes are going," Darnall said. And then they are turning around and coming back to Fairbanks to compete at the state level.

Darnall expects about 350 athletes in total will participate in the Alaska International Senior Games this year.

Anyone can be an athlete

The AISG got started because Jim Madonna, an avid runner, had competed at the National Senior Games. He founded Alaska's version in 2003, for which he earned the Fairbanks North Star Borough Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.

Darnall heard Madonna pitch his idea at a Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce meeting.

"I had just turned 50 at the time," Darnall recalled. She decided to participate in the first games and did so for many years.

"My parents had gotten into senior games. My mom was particularly interested in senior games because there were no organized athletics for girls when she was growing up. She didn't get into her first track meet until she was 55."

Even in Darnall's own youth, there were few opportunities for girls to play sports. So signing up was a natural fit for an active person.

An international element

If you compete in the Alaska International Senior Games, you might be playing against a Canadia, Ukrainian or Japanese athlete. Or you might try bocce, an Italian lawn bowling game, for the first time.

Competitors can come from anywhere to participate, and many pick Alaska because it is a "bucket list" item for many people, Darnall said. They make a vacation out of their trip, competing in the Alaska games, but also visiting Denali or driving up the Dalton Highway to the Arctic or going fishing on the Kenai.

Most athletic events can be enjoyed by newcomers and experienced athletes alike, Darnall said. Bocce, mini golf, or team toss (a bag-throwing game a bit like cornhole), are all accessible to all comers. She asks that competitors know how to skate before playing hockey or swim before attempting to do laps in the Patty Center pool.

Anyone 90 or older gets in free

Bob Baker is on the Alaska International Senior Games board and manages the track and field competition.

He says participants range former high school or collegiate athletes to those who came to athleticism in middle age and others who are new to sport.

"Others just come out for the camaraderie," he said. "Some even train a little bit."

But the best is watching people try things they never had an opportunity to do, like shotput. He says that the organizers help participants by putting on a sports clinic before the competition.

Darnall's own mother learned to throw the javelin late in life.

"Anyone 90 gets in free," Darnall said.

Last year, a woman signed up her mother for the 50-meter dash. The competitor normally used a walker, but for the event, she put it aside and walked the 50 meters.

"Our 80- and 90-year-olds are amazing," Darnall said. "They are willing to try things for the first time."

Click to register.

Click to volunteer. https://www.alaskaisg.org/support/volunteer/