Wasilla octogenarian still going strong as champion athlete

WASILLA — Irish playwright and essayist George Bernard Shaw must’ve had Jane Soeten in mind when he quipped “youth is wasted on the young.”

The new-to-Wasilla octogenarian — she’ll be 85 this month — has as much pep as a teenager and is passionate about physical exercise and athletic competition. That’s what led her to a career in organizing YWCA events in her home state of Oklahoma and a second life as a national champion senior athlete.

Soeten recently qualified for the 2013 National Senior Games at the Alaska International Senior Games in Fairbanks, taking home gold medals in four sporting events in her division, women age 85-90. In track and field, she won the discus with a throw of 36 feet even, the shot put (11 feet, 11 inches) and javelin (24-7). She also won her age group in raquetball.

Soeten moved to the Wasilla Senior Center in July to be close to her daughter and son-in-law, Valley residents Janis and Gary Bishop. A couple of weeks later, she was in Fairbanks winning gold and extending a streak of qualifying for every National Senior Games since she began participating in 1988 at age 60.

“Well, my doctor told me to either start using or lose it, so I’ve been using it,” Soeten said.

While she may be new to Wasilla, her story may not be for some. She was a fixture on her senior 3-on-3 basketball team in Tulsa, Okla., and was a guest last December on “The Rosie Show” on the Oprah Winfrey Network. She talked about being an 84-year-old competitive basketball player and ran circles around the show’s host, Rosie O’Donnell.

Soeten estimates she’s won “thousands” of medals in numerous events over the years, including running, swimming and basketball. Her favorite, though, is a sport new to her — the hammer throw. She won national gold in the event in California last year and silver in the games before that in Houston.

Soeten may be a champion senior athlete, but don’t ask her to describer herself that way.

“No, no, I’m just an old woman who enjoys life because I’m able to,” she said. “It’s a matter of getting out and doing it.”

She hopes her story will help inspire other Wasilla seniors to become more physically active, and she hopes that at next year’s senior games in Fairbanks, the senior center can take a busload of competitors.

“What I am hope here is, there are 300 seniors living here and they don’t do anything,” she said. “Bingo, hoof-and-mouth games, puzzles — that’s the extent of their activity. Right now, they have the stuff to make a horseshoe pit. I think if we can get that going, that would be good.”

She said the limitations of age also aren’t good reasons to not be involved.

“People in wheelchairs can do the shot put, discus and javelin,” she said. “I’m hoping we can stimulate them around here and get the high school coaches to come in Saturdays and work (with the seniors).”

Winning medals is great, but that’s not the point, Soeten said.

“It’s not if they’re good or not, it’s that they’re competing,” she said. “They’re doing something. They can go and see other people the same age they are and maybe it will get them where they can do more things.”

Soeten recalled her first senior sporting event in 1988, a 50-yard dash at the Oklahoma state games.

“Well, I got there late and I got there just in time to hear them call the race, so I had to run around the stadium to get in the gate and to the track,” she said. “As soon as I got in place, they fired the (starting) gun.”

By that time, she had already run quite a distance just to get to the starting line.

“I went about halfway and my legs all froze up,” she said.

Her enthusiasm and encouraging spirit earned Soeten the Vanderbuilt Award in 2008, which is given to one athlete a year who exemplifies the spirit of the senior games.

It’s also what sparked the spritely woman to challenge this out-of-shape reporter half her age to a game of “horse.” While the challenge was not accepted, she did elicit a promise to enter at least one Senior Games event when he turns 50 in seven years.

At the Wasilla Senior Center, Soeten said some of the residents call her athletic achievements at her age “amazing.”

“They think it’s amazing and I don’t,” she said. “To me it’s just common living. If you’re going to grow old, do it with gusto.”

Contact reporter Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.