Sumi Onodera-Leonard Track and field Huntington Beach, Calif. Overcame: Devastating car accident
In November 2003 a car crossed the median and collided head-on into the vehicle Sumi Onodera-Leonard was driving. The impact killed her two dogs, shattered her heel, broke several other bones and left her in a coma for three days.
When she awakened and began her arduous journey to recovery, Onodera-Leonard, twice an age-group world champion in the 800 meters, ached to get back on the track. "I told every doctor that I saw that I wanted to be running and racing again; that was my primary goal. I saw a lot of raised eyebrows, but that was OK," she said.
She found that her desire to return to Masters track helped her through the pain of physical therapy and occupational therapy. "First she was in a wheelchair and then a walker and then a cane and then she was running in the water," remembered Mark Cleary, her coach with the SoCal Track Club.
Bob Leonard, Sumi's husband, joked that his wife's will was powerful enough to withstand his care giving. "The biggest thing was enduring three months of her husband's cooking," he said.
With a heel that is still painful with each step, Onodero-Leonard made her big comeback at the 2005 USA Masters Outdoor Track and Field Championships, where she placed second in the 100 meters, 400 meters and 800 meters. In the 2006 championships, she placed second in the 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters and 800 meters.
Now she's looking forward to turning 80. "That would be the next age group," he said. "I want to do everything I can so that I don't let my body go when I age up."
Nominee for Mar-Apr 2007
Lynn Roberts Archery Quemado, N.M. Overcame: Debilitating stroke
Lynn Roberts won a gold medal in archery in the women's 80-84 age group at the National Senior Games in June 2005. Six months later Roberts suffered a stroke, which paralyzed her left side and left her a long road to recovery. But she had something to work for: She wanted to win a gold medal at the 2007 National Senior Games in Louisville, Ky.
"The surgeon who Roto-Rootered my corroded carotid artery put my picture on the hospital wall and said that was his goal, to get me back into competition," said Roberts, who has been an archer since the 1940s. After a painful rehabilitation she was eventually walking with a cane and began practicing with her bow.
She made it to the New Mexico State Games last August, when she won her age group and qualified for the National Senior Games. The 82-year-old is planning to be in Louisville this summer. If she is, she'll be wearing the Robin Hood cap her youngest son, who died in a car accident in 2001, won as a boy for splitting his arrow just like the legendary archer. "He once asked me why I still had that silly hat," Roberts remembers. "I told him, 'I'm a mother. Of course I still have that silly hat.'"
Wendy Booker said she was never much of an athlete. "I ran a little. I did some Jazzercise in the 80s," she said.
In 1998 her legs often felt numb, which she attributed to her jogging. "Then one day in the spring of 1998, I was working on a store window when I fell for no apparent reason. I just fell," she said.
A few months later Booker was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Prior to 1993, Booker says she would have been told by her doctors, "Go home and prepare to live your life in a wheelchair." New therapies, however, have mitigated some of the disease's effects. And now doctors encourage those with MS to exercise.
Booker has moved well past jogging and Jazzercise. She took up mountain climbing and has become obsessed with the sport, recently moving from near Boston to Boulder, Colo., to be able to train at altitude year round. "I used to be an interior designer," she said. "Now I don't care what color your sofa is."
She became the first woman with MS to summit Denali (Mount McKinley in Alaska), the highest mountain in North America, in 2004 after an aborted try in 2002. "I needed to be humbled," she said.
Her ultimate goal is the seven summits, climbing the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents. In addition to Denali, she has already climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mount Elbrus in Europe and Mount Aconcagua in South America. She hopes to climb Asia's Mount Everest in 2009.
She is now a motivational speaker, and her talks focus on her battle with MS. Mountain climbing is her metaphor. "All of us have our own mountain to face," she explained. "Climb it, go for it."
Nominee for August 2007
Marian Furst West Jordan, Utah. Speed skating Overcame: Inner ear tumor and asthma
In 1992 Marian Furst started speed skating. She was 42. She became good at the sport fairly quickly. Despite battling asthma and competing at the high end of the age group, she won the overall title for women aged 45-49 in the National Pack Style Long Track Championships in 1999 and 2000.
In 2001 she decided to measure herself against elite competition. "I quit my dead-end job and took several months off hoping to qualify for the 2002 U.S. Olympic Trials in Long Track Speed Skating." In the end she fell short of qualifying for the trials by 0.86 seconds. At the age of 51 she skated the 3,000 meters in 4:58.86. The qualifying standard was 4:58.00.
Furst's training during that period was hampered by a variety of symptoms that eventually led to a diagnosis of a benign tumor of the sheath surrounding her vestibular nerve, which transmits balance information from the inner ear to the brain. In 2003, she had the tumor surgically removed. "The surgeons had to sever my vestibular nerve, so I now have no inner ear balance function on the left side. For some unknown reason, my right side vestibular function is also poor," she said.
While many people in Furst's condition must use canes to walk, she is able to continue skating. "I am able to skate almost as fast as I did during the 2001-2002 season," Furst said. Last winter she skated in a 10,000-meter race, posting a time of 18:53.18, which is apparently a world record for women 55-59, although age-group record-keeping is spotty in speed skating.
Nominee for September 2007
Margery Hoffman Greenwood, S.C. Distance running Overcame: Being struck by a car, joint replacements
Margery Hoffman was at the 12-mile mark of a half marathon in Turbeville, S.C., three years ago when she was struck by a car. "I was flipped up into the air and onto the pavement," Hoffman, now 77 and a grandmother of four, said.
Hoffman spent several days in the hospital recovering from a concussion and a handful of minor fractures. She was mainly perturbed that she didn't get to complete the race. "I was almost done; that wasn't fair," the former nurse said.
Hoffman returned to running, but the accident seemed to make her minor arthritis much worse. In the years since the accident she has had both of her shoulders and both of her hips replaced. After the shoulder replacements she set age-group South Carolina state records in both the 5k and the 10k.
Running after the hip replacements has proved more difficult. Her second hip replacement, which took place in January of this year, resulted in "major complications," Hoffman said. Blood pooled in her hip, leading to a long delay in her rehabilitation. Nonetheless, she told her surgeon she planned to resume running. "He said, 'Well, let's be realistic.' But I'm going to do it and he knows it," Hoffman said.
The doctor put in a ceramic hip so that she could run," said Hoffman's husband, Dale.
Margery Hoffman has finally resumed jogging, and she's looking forward to racing again. She has her eye set on a 5k in the fall. She also has some unfinished business: "I want to do another half marathon," she declared.
Nominee for October 2007
Barbara Bogart Elizabethton, Tenn. Cycling and Track and Field Overcame: Obesity, broken neck
Barbara Bogart, 64, had a scare at the National Senior Games, which were held in Louisville, Ky., earlier this summer. Riding the 20k cycling road race, Bogart crashed and was nearly run over by a fellow cyclist. (You can see the results of the mishap on her chin in the photo accompanying this story). Cut chin and all, Bogart got back on her bike and finished the race. "I was moving on pure adrenaline," she said. "By now I'm just lucky to be able to do this." Climbing back on the bike after her crash is small potatoes compared to some of the previous comebacks Bogart has made in her life. She has experienced a series of setbacks in the past 11 years. It started in November 1996 when Bogart broke her neck and collarbone in a car accident. "The doctors told me the break was a fraction of an inch away from making me a quadriplegic," she said. In 2004, she lost her job and was without medical insurance. She decided to change her diet and exercise habits. She lost 70 pounds and started competing in cycling events around her hometown. She also competes in track and field. "I do the track and field events for fun," Bogart. "There aren't many coaches in the area, so the only times I track my progress are through the district and state competitions." Bogart has kept exercising and kept the weight off. She views herself as a woman with a mission. "I just want to encourage everyone to remember that being fit isn't just for the young," she said.
-- Patrick Crush
Nominee for November 2007
Karen Einsidler Tenafly, N.J. Swimming Overcame: Breast cancer
Her physician was concerned enough about Karen Einsidler's risk of breast cancer that she had regular biopsies beginning in 1999. The tests first found cancer in 2004. To remove the cancer she had an operation and then another, but the surgeons were still not satisfied with the results.
Einsidler, who works in Manhattan, was dissatisfied, too, and eventually contacted a doctor in Boston for advice. After consulting with him, Einsidler decided that a double mastectomy would be the most prudent move. "I have 9-year-old triplets," Einsidler said. "My husband and I really want to stick around."
She had the operation in late 2005. She wanted to get back to training in the pool as soon as she could, because she had a goal: the FINA World Masters Championships. But she wanted to do more than just enter, she wanted to win. "I wanted to swim in the worlds, because I turned 50 in 2006," Einsidler said. "It was in the state of California. I wasn't in the mood to travel to another country."
Her journey back to the pool was complicated by the implants she had inserted behind her chest muscles. The surgeon was concerned that she could tear the muscles by swimming, so Einsidler trained with fins for a period before beginning to work out in earnest. "Time was running out on the worlds," she said.
She was disappointed in her first four races -- silver medals in each event. She finally won a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle and tacked on another gold in the open-water swim.
In the aftermath of her cancer, Einsidler has seen the value of talking about the disease. She wanted her email address included in this story so that anyone who had a question about dealing with breast cancer could get in touch with her. So here it is: Karen_Einsidler@glic.com.
Cycling
