Perryville will once again host its own version of the Olympic games, but this one has an older crowd.
The Perryville Parks and Recreation Department will host the 22nd annual First State Community Bank Southeast Missouri Senior Games. It is one of the biggest events the Park Center hosts each year. The games will be held August 11-13 in various locations around the community. The Senior Games changed to a three-day format last year and will stick with it again in 2023. In past years, the Senior Games started on a Wednesday and ran through Saturday, ending with the track and field events.
This year’s games have about 80 participants.
The participants in the games range in age from 50 to mid-90s that compete in nearly 50 events over the three days. Competitions range from softball accuracy throws, to numerous swimming and track events. Of all the age groups that participant, the age group with the most participants falls within the 75-80 age range.
The event that seems to be the most popular is pickleball. The event has the most participants of any event for this year’s games yet again. Pickleball will be the only event scheduled for Sunday.
“It got too big so we had to move it to its own day last year,” Cadwell said. “It’s quite a popular sport.”
Pickleball is not only growing in Perryville, but across the nation as well.
“A lot of people come just for the pickleball,” Cadwell said. “Pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports in the nation. It’s kind of like tennis, but a little more manageable because they aren’t moving around as much. It’s been the most popular event at the games for a couple of years now.”
Other events that are popular during the games are the accuracy throws and the track and field events.
Perryville’s version is not a state-sanctioned event, which means that the winning participants don’t move on to a regional or national event. Despite this, Cadwell likes the competitive nature of the games.
“We get a few people every year that get very competitive,” he said. “Our event is just for fun and more relaxed. However, there are some people who use these games as practice or to time themselves in some of the track events for the bigger competitions.”
Even though it is not sanctioned, he sees the Senior Games as being successful event.
“For us being a smaller town, we get good participation,” she said. “We get people from surrounding communities and that’s really impressive. I like the Senior games because you get to know the people who come every year to compete and its good to see them every year as well as the new competitors.”
