There’s no telling what might catch the eye of a future lover. And there’s no doubt the arenas and sidelines of Masters sports, with their passion and personalities and action, can provide the perfect playground for concerns of the heart — if you’re interested in that sort of thing.

Masters athletes and organizers seem to have no trouble reciting the names of couples who found soul mates through the games people play. It is the prize that outlasts a gold medal.

Dan Cravens, a table tennis competitor, is fond of saying, “I won two silver and the blonde” at the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah, in October 2004. The blonde would be Marina, the Russian coach of a table tennis team from northern Russia. Dan, 62, is retired military and a casino security guard who had never married. He insists he wasn’t hunting at Huntsman. But what brought him and Marina to the same table?

“She liked my legs,” he responds, laughing. “It’s true,” Marina, 45, agrees. “Good muscle.”

“We were checking each other out,” Dan adds. “I saw this beautiful blonde over there.”

Despite her limited English and his nonexistent Russian, they had little trouble achieving their own glasnost. He says, “It seems like we knew what each other was thinking.” But there was still the matter of her going home to Russia. Dan saw the Russian team off at the bus station, and it was in that moment they both realized she was going to Russia with love. “It was when we said goodbye,” he said.

But keeping the flame lit was like penetrating the Iron Curtain. Dan said, “It took a long time for correspondences from Las Vegas to Russia. I don’t think I heard anything for a month.”

Marina arranged a trip in February 2005 for a table tennis symposium. Dan said, “She was supposed to visit for a month. It turned into forever.” He proposed on Valentine’s Day, and they married at the renowned Little White Wedding Chapel. Marina is now a ranked U.S. women’s table tennis player and taking English classes. “Everything is perfect. It’s the perfect love story,” Dan says.

It felt that way, too, for Karen Huff and Emil Pawlik. And Chicago and Mississippi seemed as different as Vegas and Russia. They met at the Athletes Banquet during the 1995 World Masters Track and Field Championships in Buffalo. Emil, 67, was and is a world-class hurdler. Karen, 63, who competes in throwing events, recalls: “I had watched the finals. … Emil was leading, and he hit the last hurdle and fell. I remember jumping up and saying, ‘Oh no!’ That night we were introduced and I asked him, ‘How is your knee? It must be very painful to lose that way.’ And he said, ‘It’s not so terrible. Everyone remembers who I am.’ I thought, what a great guy. It was love at first sight. At least it was for me. You’d have to ask him.”

For the record, Emil needed no prodding, as he recalled being introduced by their mutual friend. “I think for both of us it was love at first sight. Bruce walked in with Karen. I asked, ‘Bruce, are you two together?’ Bruce looked at her and said yes. Karen smiled and said no. I said, ‘Karen, would you like to dance?’”

Some Masters organizations host singles dances to break the ice. They tend to prefer if you go to a singles dance that you actually be single, lest they be threatened with a lawsuit by a spurned spouse. Karen and Emil had no such complications, but dated long-distance for 10 years before they married last April. She has moved to Mississippi. “It’s been a wonderful time,” she said. “It’s so nice to know you can start over.”

For Carolyn and Tom Boak, it was not exactly love at first sight. Carolyn was an intense competitor, and Tom a U. S. Masters Swimming committee chair in Indianapolis in 1983. Because of space, some events were moved to a warm-up pool, including Carolyn’s 400-meter freestyle. It didn’t go swimmingly. She won the race but didn’t like her time. “Indianapolis has the fastest (main) pool I ever swam in — the warm-up pool, not so good. My friend Lucy pointed to Tom and said, ‘That’s the person you can blame.’ I glared at him and said it was the worst pool I ever swam in. That’s how we met. He thought I was kind of a jerk.”

Four years later at a Masters swimming convention in Atlanta, they wound up conversing. Carolyn says, “We fell in love at that convention.” Did Tom recall her glaring insult? “Oh yeah, he brought it up. That’s a joke in our marriage. It irritates him still.”

Actually he’s still explaining the warm-up pool. “She has a perception that’s a little different from mine. I was caught in a trap. I didn’t make the decision. … I just got the flak.”

Tom, 62, has fonder memories of Atlanta. “We started out just talking. That’s what it was about. I had a lot of stuff bottled inside me. I would shut down. She doesn’t stand for that.”

They married in 1989, and now she lives in Texas 60 percent of the time. Carolyn, 60, also maintains a home in California where she works as a psychiatric nurse. They both still compete and coach swimming. They’re among three USMS board couples who met through Masters. On Tom and Carolyn’s team alone, two couples who met through swimming announced engagements, he said.

“If you see someone who is appealing to you and involved in Masters swimming, it’s natural to be drawn to them to share in your passion.” Carolyn adds, “It’s really important to do activities you love. You’re going to look good because you’re happy.”

Even when you’re furious.