It was late Thursday morning, another workout just completed by Marilyn Beckner, Patsy Duncan and Jack Painter in advance of the Tennessee Senior Olympics pickleball competition slated for Aug. 7-9 at the Chattanooga Convention Center.
Beckner and Duncan are both 82 and play doubles together. Painter, 84, will team with Duncan in mixed doubles.
Asked what they most enjoyed about such competitions, other than the considerable number of medals they've all won over the years in various senior competitions, the trio all but answered in unison, "We laugh a lot."
"Especially at ourselves," added Painter.
Ah, laughter. Fellowship. Interaction with others.
We pretty much all went without such niceties, if not necessities, for 15 months, especially the older among us who needed to be extra careful not to contract COVID-19.
So Beckner, who's something of a senior legend in these parts in the sport of swimming, didn't hit the water for more than a year. When she finally returned to the pool a few months ago, the pool hit back.
"I'm still not back to where I was before COVID," she said. "But I'm getting there."
Painter and his wife stayed in fighting trim during much of the pandemic by, in his words, "playing pickleball in our garage."
As for Duncan, who's been one of the best softball players in her age group in the Scenic City since her high school days at City, she found enough outdoor fields to play on that she could stay in shape until gyms and recreation centers reopened.
A sidenote: When Duncan moved to Chattanooga from California in the ninth grade - she was actually born in Nashville before her family left for the Left Coast - they didn't play girls' softball in the city's schools.
"I was on a traveling team, the Chattanooga Chargers," she recalled.
Kelly Price runs the Frances B. Wyatt Youth and Family Development Center on Colville Street and has worked with the Senior Olympics for 31 years. She said pickleball surged in popularity among seniors both during the pandemic and since it has begun to ebb, at least partly because a lot of folks realized they could play it outdoors.
"There's no question the pandemic has been hard on a lot of seniors," Price said. "We were basically closed for 15 months. I remember Judge (Clarence) Shattuck calling me at one point and saying, 'Kelly, you don't understand. An 80-year-old just can't sit around."
For the uninformed, pickleball is scaled-down tennis. It has a net but is played on a smaller court with large paddles and a plastic ball that resembles a Wiffle ball, though smaller. It requires less movement and court coverage than tennis, but it rewards some of the same skills.
"The people playing it more than doubles every year," said Price, who has worked with Duncan for 24 years. "I'll give you one stat. When we introduced pickleball in Chattanooga about 12 years ago, a company I know of was selling around 200 paddles a month. Now they're selling over 6,500 a month. It's exploded in China and Japan. It's crazy."
It's gotten so crazy according to a BBC News article from four months ago, 37 countries are now part of the International Pickleball Federation, which was double what it had been 18 months earlier.
(Note to anyone looking for that perfect last-second Father's Day gift for the older dad or granddad in your life: You could do worse than a pickleball paddle.)
Duncan, who has also excelled in tennis and volleyball over the years, enjoys the competitive side of pickleball. But she freely admits the competition on tap for August at the Chattanooga Convention Center - it will also be there next summer - is not what she enjoys the most.
"I like the fellowship mostly," she said. "But it's certainly good exercise for seniors."
Said Beckner: "You meet some wonderful people. Just making new friends is great."
Added Painter, who moved here with his wife, Wanda, from Texas a few years ago: "I'd also say the fellowship is what's best."
If that's so, Price would add that the trio is at least partly responsible for spreading that fellowship among the seniors they play with and compete against.
"Ms. Patsy is not only an awesome athlete, but a super nice lady," Price said of Duncan. "So is Ms. Marilyn and Mr. Jack. They're the kind of people who can bring 1,000 along with them. They're so positive and encouraging."
It probably doesn't hurt that they're also so accomplished. In a few seconds they can reel off close to a dozen cities where they've competed in the National Senior Olympics, everywhere from San Francisco to Cleveland, Ohio, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Houston, to Birmingham, Alabama. Man, have they been everywhere.
Along the way, both Beckner and Duncan estimate they've won more than 100 medals as senior athletes. Though Painter spent many of his senior years in Texas, which has an alternate organization to Senior Olympics, he's also been an accomplished senior athlete.
As Duncan explained what most drives these octogenarians to compete with such zeal and consistency, she said: "You don't get old and sit down. You sit down and get old."
With that as a mantra, Beckner, Duncan and Painter should remain forever young.
Mark WiedmerContact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @TFPWeeds.