There are three stages of Olympic watching: From pre-teen to maybe your mid-30s, you watch the powerful bodies running, diving, tumbling and think that could be (could have been) me. Then after your mid-30s, you start identifying with the parents of the athletes, eyeing your own progeny and thinking, That could be me. Or maybe not, as you realize your kid is once again glued to Minecraft. At our age, as we witness 13-year-olds win skateboarding gold and teenagers on the podium in most every sport, we realize we could be the grandmothers now.
But not every athlete in Tokyo was born after the Internet was invented. Some athletes were around to witness the fall of the Berlin Wall, the moon landing, maybe even that time when Democrats and Republicans got along. We honor three of them here, because while the core values of the Olympics are excellence, respect, and friendship, these women add experience, determination, and persistence to the mix.
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