Register today for the Senior Center Olympics next week June 13-17

Calling All Seniors- Come Participate in our First Annual Senior Olympics!! From a 1/2 mile walk to a Bocce Tournament to even a Watermelon Carving Contest- we have a lot of opportunities for you to compete while having fun! Get out of your comfort zone, athlete or not, and join us June 13-17, 2022! 

Register Now - Online Form to Register: https://forms.gle/oJVU7BwLZCkqybbj6

Or Call the Senior Center 508-520-4945!

$5 to compete in any and all events (includes T-Shirt)
$10 to compete and join us for the GO FOR THE GOLD MONTHLY PARTY on Friday June 17th

Additional information in the newsletter -> https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif6896/f/uploads/franklin_senior_center_june_2022_newsletter_final.pdf

Olympics at the Senior Center

Senior Olympics at the Senior Center

"I do think it’s a dance. It’s poetry. It’s balance. It’s grace. It’s power"

"The throwers at her school had an annual spaghetti dinner, and they said that anybody who tried their discipline could come to the dinner. “Weirdly, food was my incentive,” Allman remembered, and when she went to throw the discus, she had discovered how familiar it felt to dancing.

“I think it’s a second-and-a-half dance that you do hundreds of times and it’s really repetitive, but gosh-darn, I do think it’s a dance. It’s poetry. It’s balance. It’s grace. It’s power,” Allman said, and all of those virtues together are what defined her performance Monday night to give the U.S. track and field team its first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics — and its first gold in women’s discus since 2008."

Continue reading the article online (subscription maybe required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/08/02/valarie-allman-discus-olympics/

Watch a brief video of her winning toss -> https://youtu.be/silrPLJrvFU
   

Team USA's Valarie Allman reacts while competing in the women's discus final. (Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images)

Keeping wits and hope alive

For the runners among us:

"For the first third of his preliminary race at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, Sean McGorty ran comfortably, keeping pace near the front of a heap of 14 runners. He had started running the 3,000-meter steeplechase — a middle-distance event that requires competitors to hurdle high, hard barriers, sometimes over 2½-feet-deep pits of water — in May, but already he had achieved the qualifying standard.

McGorty, a Fairfax native and Chantilly High graduate, entered Oregon’s Hayward Field hopeful to reach the Tokyo Olympics. To secure his place in the final, he would need to finish in the top five. Everything was going to plan one kilometer in, until it wasn’t. A runner stepped on the back of McGorty’s right foot, ripping down the heel of his shoe.

“I got a flat tire,” McGorty said."

Continue reading the article online (subscription maybe required)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/06/22/sean-mcgorty-olympic-trials/

Sean McGorty finished ninth in his preliminary heat of the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, Ore. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

The Boston Globe: "Franklin’s Kristi Kirshe named to US women’s rugby Olympic roster"

"Kristi Kirshe starred in soccer at Franklin High, and only picked up rugby in her first year at Williams College, but now the 26-year-old is headed to the Tokyo Olympics as a center/wing for the US women’s rugby sevens team.

Kirshe is one of 12 starters on the roster, announced Thursday, which also includes three reserves and 10 coaches, trainers, and health experts. The 5-foot-5-inch, 160-pounder is one of 10 starters headed to their first Olympics, with Lauren Doyle and Alev Kelter the returners from the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

The US finished fifth at the 2016 Games, but claimed five medals in six tournaments to end 2019 ranked No. 2 in the world. The US was ranked fifth in 2020 when the World Rugby Sevens Series was disrupted by the pandemic."

Continue reading the article online (subscription maybe required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/18/sports/franklins-kristi-kirshe-named-us-womens-rugby-olympic-roster/

Kristi Kirshe runs with the ball during an international tournament in February.DAVID RAMOS/GETTY