Helen Beauchamp

W80+
Helen Beauchamp
Track and field
Memphis, Tenn.

Helen Beauchamp, 88, collects track and field gold medals the way some sports fans collect
baseball cards. She gives them away just as fast. "The goal isn't to see how many gold medals I can get," this grandmother of 11 says while discussing her accomplishments. "When one of my grandchildren does something that I think is noteworthy, I give them a gold medal. I'm not just hanging them on the wall."

If she did, she'd quickly run out of room. In the 2005 National Senior Games in Pittsburgh, Beauchamp set three world records. During the 2007 Games, in Louisville, Ky., she entered five events (the hammer throw, the discus, the javelin, the shot put and the long jump), and took home five gold medals, which included a new national record in the hammer throw (15.03 meters).

Born and raised in Texas, Beauchamp, who now lives in Memphis, says her competitive spirit comes naturally. "Competing is clearly something I love to do, and I've done it all my life," she says. "When I was in school, the first six grades, the girls weren't supposed to play ball, but I loved playing ball. So I did."

Beauchamp majored in health and physical education at North Texas State University, but never went into teaching. Instead, she followed her father into the real estate business, and played softball for local teams. After Beauchamp and her husband relocated to Mississippi in 1984, she began entering track and field competitions.

"It's fun to win," Beauchamp says. "I don't want to do it at the expense of someone else. That's not my point. My point, not just in sports but in everything I do, is to do the best I can do. I think I'm obligated to do that, because I believe the one who put me here, and is keeping me here, wants that out of our lives. If the spiritual part was not there, the rest of it would not matter."

To take care of the physical side of the ledger, Beauchamp has started working out with yoga and pilates. "I'm hooked," she says. "And I love the camaraderie with other people, younger and older."