New Mexico Senior Olympics: These four athletes are going for gold

More than 400 athletes ranging in age from 50 to 97 will be converging on Las Cruces this week to take part in the 2025 New Mexico Senior Olympics State Summer Games, an annual extravaganza that first was held in Albuquerque in 1979.

Twenty-six sports, from frisbee distance throws to pickleball to cycling, will be contested Wednesday through next Sunday at 19 venues across the city in southern New Mexico. A festive meet-and-greet opening ceremony will take place Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Las Cruces Convention Center.

Among the participants will be 429 from New Mexico and 37 from other states, which is a leap from the 150 who were in the inaugural event.

Of all the sports, cornhole, a popular event in taverns and at backyard get-togethers, has the highest number of participants entered. Shuffleboard is a close second. The age group with the most athletes is 70-74, with men overall totaling 276 and women 190.

Here’s a closer look at some of the participants:

From a wheelchair to the top of the medal stand

Most competitors no doubt have lost at least a step over the years and/or are dealing with balky body parts. Probably none more so than Albuquerque’s Bonnie Coleman, 71, who will be participating in three field events in track and three more in swimming.

That’s impressive considering her legs are paralyzed below the knees because of issues with multiple sclerosis.

“I spent five years in a wheelchair while learning how to walk again,” she said of the period from 1996-2001 while living back home in western Pennsylvania. “I still have feeling and stability in my knees. I had to learn to square my feet. I still don’t have good balance. I moved out here as soon as I could walk again because of the lack of humidity, which is good for my MS.”

She has been competing in the New Mexico Summer Games since arriving in the state and also has participated in the every-other-year national Senior Olympic activities since 2007. She will be headed to Des Moines, Iowa, for this year’s nationals July 24 through Aug. 4.

In the pool she doesn’t just compete. She excels.

Coleman still holds the 55-59 age-group record in the 50-yard backstroke she set in 2012 at 38.72 seconds. And last year she broke the mark in the 100 backstroke in the 70-74 division at 1 minute, 38.72 seconds. She’ll also be in the 50-meter freestyle this week.

Those swimming achievements are particularly astounding since she is unable to push off the starting block because of her leg troubles.

“My sister (fellow competitor Connie Dayton) or somebody helps me up on the starting block and when I start it’s more of a fall into the water,” she said, adding that she also can’t push off making turns, either.

But she sure does well in the open water.

As for field events, she’s busy with the discus, shot put and javelin.

In another record-setting performance last year she broke the 70-74 age-group mark in the javelin with a heave of 66 feet, 2.09 inches. She also finished first in the 2024 Games in the discus at 48 feet, 11.01 inches.

On top of all that she also competes in softball for a team of seniors and plays in the outfield, at first base and catcher.

Once in a while she even rests.

Bonnie Coleman: Senior Olympian

Music to his ears

Las Cruces’ Gene Pettes, 82, has been involved in the New Mexico Senior Games since he was first eligible to compete at age 50.

This year he’s entered in seven events — the 50-, 100- and 200-meter dashes and also the triple jump, standing long jump, running long jump and high jump.

He said he’s most grateful they no longer are all held on the same day.

“That’s how they used to have it,” he said with a halfway groan.

Pettes first gained statewide notice for his athletic prowess when he helped lead Las Cruces High to the 1962 state high school track and field championship as a junior. Among his exploits was winning the 120-meter high hurdles.

Pettes also has gained another measure of fame over the years for being the vocal leader of his oldies band: “Genie and the Starliners.” He said he’s been singing since he was 14 and that he even wanted to make a living doing so coming out of high school. Thus, he said, he passed on track and field scholarship offers from UNM and New Mexico State, among others.

“I wanted to be another James Brown and make it my career,” he said. “Nowadays with my band I must be the only black genie in the country.”

As for his state Senior Games career, his name appears throughout the record book.

In 2023 Pettes set the mark for the 80-84 age group in the standing long jump at 9 feet, 4.50 inches, and in 2018 broke the record in the 75-79 division triple jump at 23-9. He still holds that mark. In addition, he shares the record in the high jump in the 60-64 age group when in 2005 he cleared 4-9. And last year he won the running long jump at 8-8.33.

The only times he hasn’t competed in the NM Senior Games the past 30-plus years was when injury struck.

In one instance six years ago he fell 10 feet off ladder while working on his home’s roof. He fractured his cheek, broke both arms and injured his legs, which he says still give him trouble.

When he was 65 he put an ax in one of his feet and still competed two weeks later in the 400 meters.

Pettes’ goal for this week is to set at least one record as he prepares for the nationals.

“I always try to break records each year,” he said. “But in the nationals I’ll be happy to medal.”

97 and still moving fast

Anne Nauman is the oldest competitor in the Games at age 97 and will be joined by husband Charles, who is two years younger.

Both will compete in powerwalking and are two of eight athletes 90 or older in the Games.

“I’m disappointed that there won’t be more competition in our age group,” said Anne, who completed the 1,500 meters last year in 16 minutes, 17 seconds. That was faster than the winner in the 75-79 women’s field.

But that shouldn’t have come as too big a surprise since she is a former marathon runner, from ages 40-60, whose best time was 4 hours, 10 minutes. That’s something to brag about.

On repeat?

Donald Geeze, 75, is a formidable competitor in table tennis, winning singles and doubles titles last year in the state Games, and also having previously won a national championship in doubles

He said a key to success is to maintain concentration during matches.

“Sometimes I’ll be in the middle of a game and my mind will start wandering,” he said. “It’s a mental game and it’s important to stay focused.”

Geeze said he plays pretty much every day, whether it be at a friend’s house or at the Bear Canyon Senior Center.

“There’s always something to learn,” he said. “People in our age group are all former elite players. But sadly there just aren’t that many around anymore.”

One event he no longer competes in is the 5-kilometer run. And for good reason.

“I’ve never been a fast runner,” he said, “but it got to the point where those who could barely walk would be beating me.”