Katie Couric on the National Senior Games 2023

Call them inspiring. Call them fierce. Call them powerful. Just please, don’t call them “cute,” says Katie Couric, the legendary journalist who this 12 months is acting as a spokesperson for the games, commonly often called the “Senior Olympics.”

For Couric, sharing the stories of those top-tier athletes isn’t just concerning the thrill of the competition (which is thrilling indeed—clips from the event often go viral). It’s about busting myths about what older individuals are and aren’t speculated to do, and promoting the importance of being lively as you age. “I like the message of staying vibrant and healthy,” she says. “Particularly now that I’m 66, so I’m considered one of the individuals who is aging and staying very lively.”

Well+Good spoke to Couric about her own fitness routine, the ageism older athletes face, and the Senior Games competitors she’ll be rooting for.

The Senior Games athletes inspiring Couric

Of all of the competitors she’s spoken to, a number of stories stand out to Couric.

One is Willie Spuill, who was a veteran fighting myriad health issues when he rediscovered running in his 60s—then swept his track events at his first Senior Games. “This has opened up a component of him that basically needed to be channeled and expressed and shared,” says Couric.

For DeEtte Sauer, learning to swim, and eventually becoming one of the crucial decorated athletes on the Games (last 12 months she won eight gold medals—the identical as Michael Phelps on the Beijing Olympics, Sauer proudly shared with Couric) was key to her recovery from alcoholism.

And at 94, Dwight Smith will likely be competing for gold in basketball alongside his son, Terry. His granddaughter, Christie, will likely be making her Senior Games debut in pickleball.

“You see the transformation in these folks after they get entangled in a sport,” says Couric. “But sport is barely a part of it—it’s being with other people.”

How Couric stays lively herself

As a longtime advocate for health and wellness, it’s no surprise that Couric’s own fitness regimen is extensive and ever-growing. An avid tennis and pickleball player (“I used to be an early pickleball adopter,” she says), she also began Pilates throughout the pandemic, “because sitting a lot really made me stiff, and I needed to work on my core strength.”

She’s also an enormous walker, “especially because I used to be diagnosed with breast cancer a 12 months ago,” says Couric. “I even have to take these aromatase inhibitors, which may sometimes have a negative effect in your bone density, so I do a whole lot of walking and weight-bearing exercises.”

She’s also working on her balance, conscious of its growing importance later in life to stop falls. And, like most of us, she’s trying to really stretch frequently.

Couric adds that she’s taking some inspiration from the Senior Games athletes she’s interviewed: “I actually need to learn how one can swim,” she says. “I do know how one can swim, but I’ve never been in a position to do it without getting really winded, so I feel I have to be doing something improper—I used to be fascinated with taking swimming lessons this summer.”

On ageism and taking older athletes seriously

Couric says she hasn’t personally encountered any stereotypes about aging, “because I defy them each day and ignore anyone who would underestimate me or attempt to marginalize me,” she says. “I pity the idiot.”

But, she acknowledges that such stereotypes absolutely exist. “Now we have to fight against the tendency to underestimate older people, or infantilize them,” she says. “I get really mad when people say ‘Oh, she’s so cute’ about someone who’s really achieved. People may not take older people as seriously as they need to, but I at all times think, should you’re lucky, you’re gonna be one.”

“Now we have to fight against the tendency to underestimate older people, or infantilize them.” —Katie Couric

Her advice? It’s never too late to begin getting lively—whether that’s swimming, pickleball, or something else entirely. “Don’t let some kind of theoretical clock or calendar stop you,” she says. “We proceed to be really capable. Sometimes society tells you you’re not, but should you just ignore that and keep going, you possibly can do a whole lot of wonderful things for the entire duration of your life.”