Libby Callahan is a retiree and a great-aunt 15 times over, with No.16 on the way. She spends her time walking her dogs, gardening and baking.
And training for the Olympics.
Callahan will compete in pistol shooting at the Beijing Games, which begin Aug.8. At 56, she's the oldest female U.S. Olympian ever. "I consider it a non-factor in what I have to do," Callahan, a four-time Olympian, says of her age.
Yet even she was impressed by 41-year-old Dara Torres' wins in the U.S. Olympic swimming trials to earn a spot on the 2008 team. Those efforts, along with Callahan's, helped put age-defying Olympic feats on the national radar.
When Torres squinted to read the scoreboard after her trials races, she heralded a trend that's taken hold on U.S. Olympic teams in the last decade: America's Olympians are significantly older than they were a generation ago, thanks to changes in the Games' rules that allow athletes to be paid for their successes plus advances in training and recovery programs.
"Age," Torres says, "is just a number."
The average age of the U.S. Summer Olympic team rose to 27 in 1996 from 24 in 1976 and has remained steady. This year's team -- even with a series of upsets during the Olympic trials that kept several older athletes from getting to Beijing -- has an average age of 26.8.
The roster includes three five-time Olympians (Torres is one) and 12 four-time Olympians. Twenty are mothers. At least one -- 58-year-old sailor John Dane III, who after 40 years of trying will be at his first Games as the oldest Team USA member and the oldest U.S. Olympian in more than 50 years -- is a grandfather.
"This just says, 'Hey, go for it,'" says U.S. modern pentathlete Sheila Taormina, 39. "Don't back off because it hasn't been done."
Taormina will be the first woman to compete at the Olympics in three different sports. Achieving that drove her to stay in Olympic sports after swimming in the 1996 Olympics, where she won a gold medal in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay, and competing in the 2000 and 2004 Games in the triathlon.
"I've always tried to break paradigms out there," Taormina says, "to just get people to think a little differently."
The other U.S. female modern pentathlete in Beijing will be 16-year-old Margaux Isaksen. Taormina jokes that "she's in puberty, and I'm in menopause." Isaksen says Taormina is "motherly," asking whether she's remembered her swimsuit or other things she needs when they're competing in the pentathlon, which includes shooting, fencing, equestrian, running and swimming.
Like Torres, 21 of the U.S. Olympians headed to Beijing are 40 or older. Torres -- who will race in the 50 freestyle and possibly one or two relays -- and Taormina might stand out for their success in sports that are particularly demanding on the body, but in Olympic sports such as shooting, sailing and others, experienced competitors often are well-suited for the precision and skills necessary for success.
U.S. Olympic officials say the aging of Team USA should increase interest in the Games among many Americans.
"It's exciting because you're looking for relevance in younger kids, but now all of a sudden you have the 40-somethings saying, 'Hey, one of our own is on the team,'" says Steve Roush, U.S. Olympic Committee chief of sport performance.
The Olympians' advanced age also has caught the attention of Team USA's most prominent fan.
"There's a 58-year-old sailor," President Bush said at a White House send-off Monday for the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic teams, "which gives this 62-year-old mountain biker hope that you may need me in Beijing."
More opportunities
The aging Olympians have changed not just the face of the team but how the U.S. Olympic Committee does business.
Eight years ago, it began paying athletes directly for living and training expenses (they now can receive up to $36,000 a year), giving them performance bonuses and providing health insurance and tuition assistance. Two years ago, the USOC opened an Athlete Recovery Center at its training center in Colorado Springs.
Unlike 30 years ago, when the end of an athlete's Olympic pursuits almost always coincided with college-graduation age, today's Olympians are staying through marriage and, in some cases, through having children. Besides the increased USOC support, athletes now can make money from endorsements and prize money and retain their Olympic eligibility.
Torres is a well-paid motivational speaker outside the pool -- she receives an average of $25,000 a speech, according to her agent, Evan Morgenstein -- and has lucrative endorsement deals with Speedo and Toyota.
Swimming at the Olympic level at her age, Torres says, is "all about recovery" from training and competition, and she's able to afford two muscle "stretchers" who travel with her, in addition to frequent sessions with a strength coach, massage therapists and a chiropractor.
"This is our job," says U.S. superstar Michael Phelps, 23, who will earn a $1 million bonus from sponsor Speedo if he wins at least seven gold medals in Beijing (he plans to swim in eight events). "We can swim as long as we're swimming well."
The average age of the U.S. Olympic swim team has risen from 18.4 in 1972 to 22.8 now.
"We've always felt that swimming should be more like track and field and that our best performances should be coming in our late 20s and our early 30s," says Mark Schubert, USA Swimming's national team coach.
Sponsorship dollars now are pouring into swimming, in part because of the high profile Phelps and others have brought to the sport. Even with the increased experience of the team, youngsters are breaking through: 15-year-old Elizabeth Beisel will swim two events in Beijing.
U.S. swim coaches say they will depend on veterans such as Torres, 25-year-old Natalie Coughlin and 26-year-old Amanda Beard to help calm the nerves of the Olympic newcomers.
The USOC's Roush welcomes a mix of veterans and young competitors on the Olympic team.
"I certainly don't want it to become a system where (Olympic veterans) become pipeline-blockers and you lose out on a generation" of athletes who say, "'Hey, I can't make the team so I'm quitting,'" he says.
The International Olympic Committee began to soften its stance on amateurism -- which had kept Olympians from profiting from their sports success -- in the mid-1970s. But not until the "Dream Team" of NBA players made its debut in the 1992 Games did the IOC embrace pro athletes.
U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz won seven gold medals in the 1972 Olympics under the old amateurism rules. When he decided to cash in on his success after the Games through endorsement deals, he had to give up his Olympic eligibility. If the rules hadn't changed, Spitz says, Phelps might have done the same thing after winning six gold and two bronze medals in the 2004 Olympics.
Instead, Phelps plans to compete through the 2012 Olympics.
"When Spitz and those guys did it back then, there was no professional swimming. So once you got to a certain point where you had to get a real job, you had to quit," Phelps says.
Not all Olympians are as richly sponsored as Phelps, who has several endorsement deals besides his Speedo contract, which he signed at 15. Many Olympians are not sponsored.
Callahan has no sponsors and receives money from USA Shooting only for expenses for international competitions. She estimated she has personally invested "thousands of dollars" to stay in a sport in which her best Olympic finish was a 19th place in 2004.
Callahan, who worked 28 years for the Washington, D.C., police department, spends the money and trains up to six hours a day for one reason: "I like to compete."
Even well-sponsored track and field has its hardship stories.
"Memories of good performances are short-lived in the minds of people who write checks," pole vaulter Jeff Hartwig, 40, a four-time U.S. outdoor champion, wrote in an e-mailed response to questions. Even after qualifying for Beijing, he wrote, he has no sponsorship offers.
The USOC tries to help such athletes with a program it began in 2000. "In early 2000, we looked at it and realized we had athletes who were bartending ... to pay their training bills," Roush says. "They weren't able to train at the level they needed."
Now, depending on their performance, athletes can receive up to $3,000 a month from the USOC. Athletes also get USOC bonuses for top-eight finishes at world championships and for Olympic medals ($10,000 for bronze, $15,000 for silver and $25,000 for gold).
'Train smarter, not harder'
Olympians probably wouldn't be staying in sports if training and recovery philosophies had not been adapted for older athletes.
Torres, who in college would swim up to 65,000 meters a week in two-a-day practices, says she now averages 30,000-35,000 meters a week, training once a day. She swims at her fastest speed just once a week, for no more than 300 meters at a time, says her coach, Michael Lohberg.
"You train smarter, not harder," says Bill Sands, a sports scientist who runs the USOC's Athlete Recovery Center.
That idea applies to competition. "When you're older, you pick your shots," says Olympic judo athlete Valerie Gotay, 34. "When you're young, it's more on instinct."
Older Olympians also have to be smart about what they do after a training session or competition. USOC sport physiologist Randy Wilber calls recovery techniques "exponentially more important" for older athletes.
The Athlete Recovery Center offers protein bars, sports drinks, massage therapists, a steam room, sauna, yoga, and hot and cold plunges. Torres obsessively follows a regimented recovery schedule of eating, drinking, stretching and massage.
"She's showing people what can be done if you do everything right," Sands says.
Even so, Torres knows her success at her age has put her under suspicion in a sports world turned cynical by doping scandals. She volunteered for a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency pilot program, Project Believe, that tests her blood and urine frequently. And she talked openly at the trials about the asthma medications and amino acids she takes.
Above all, aging Olympians have to deal with more daily aches and pains. "I used to never have to take Motrin," says Crystl Bustos, 30, who is on her third Olympic softball team. "Now I've got to take it all the time."
To ease the wear and tear, some Olympians are taking long layoffs from training and competition. U.S. gymnasts Paul and Morgan Hamm took a break after the 2004 Olympics and returned to training only in the past year.
"You really have to pace yourself. If you beat your body up too much, you're probably not going to make it," says Paul, the 2004 all-around Olympic champion.
The Hamm twins, who at 25 are not old by male-gymnast standards, suffered injuries this past year, Morgan to his shoulder and Paul to his hand. They are expected to be ready for Beijing.
This is Torres' second Olympic comeback; her first was in 2000. Two years ago, she had a daughter, Tessa. Torres is among the current U.S. Olympians who are balancing motherhood and high-level training.
That number, Wilber says, proves that female athletes no longer view having a child as the end of their sports career.
For weightlifter Melanie Roach, 33, the benefit was mental as well as physical. Roach, who missed qualifying for the 2000 Olympic team after injuring her back eight weeks before trials, now has three children.
"It puts things in perspective that I need to go into the gym and forget about the future, forget about the past and just enjoy the now," she says.
That includes Team USA's march into the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony in two weeks.
"I get goose bumps just thinking about it," Dane says.
Contributing: Marlen Garcia, Dick Patrick
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