EDGEWATER -- Gertrude Zint is a couch potato's worst nightmare.At age 89, she says with youthful verve that a life without exercise is no life at all. And she practices what she preaches -- has since childhood.
"That's dumb," she says of youngsters today who only exercise their fingers with video games. "That's why people are so soft. My mother wouldn't have allowed it. Swimming, rowing and ice skating was our entertainment."
Zint, a German native, won seven first-place medals two weeks ago at the U.S. Masters Swimming Championships in South Florida. That was followed last weekend by 10 more first-and-second place medals at a Sarasota swim meet.
And this weekend, Zint returns as a rower at the Sunshine State Games in Miami, the oldest competitor in the summer competition where, in 2003, she was named the Athlete of the Year. Last year, more than 6,500 athletes competed in 25 sports, which included baseball, boxing and weightlifting.
"There are always a few old ones," she says. "The young ones tell me they want to do it as long as me, that I'm a role model."
Zint will be joined at the games that start today by more than 50 other Volusia and Flagler county athletes of all ages, mostly rowers and synchronized swimmers. The top two finishers in each age group will qualify for the national event in Colorado this summer.
Port Orange's Joseph Maranchick, a 16-year-old archer, will compete for the first time in the Florida games. The last three years, he said he finished second in Pennsylvania's state games.
"I knew all the others up there," said Maranchick, whose family recently moved here. "I don't know where I stand."
Eric Hill, 59, an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University professor from New Smyrna Beach, and his wife, Susan, took up running together about 15 years ago. Both have made their mark, winning medals at the national games, while living in Utah last year.
This weekend, he's registered to compete at the Sunshine State Games in the 100-meter and 200-meter races, the 100-meter hurdles, the long jump, high jump and shot put. She'll be competing in the 400-meter and 800-meter races, high jump, shot put and discus.
"It's funny," he said. "Neither one of us did this when we were kids."
ray.weiss@news-jrnl.com
