Swimmer Betsy Jordan and Weightlifter Len Sandberg thrive at community that promotes wellbeing
Friendly and diverse, there’s an easy air of camaraderie among the residents. You’ll find them in the dining room, by the fountain, tending to the roses, on the hiking trail, in the pool and in the gym. Casa de Mañana is no stranger to interesting folks, some with extraordinary accomplishments, including world-class athletes Betsy Jordan and Len Sandberg.Betsy is a record-breaking, award-winning, master-level swimmer, who, in her 40-plus years of masters swimming competition, has set more than 40 world records. Many are national and local records, including All-Star and All-American awards. In 2005 she was inducted into the International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame.
Len is an amateur weightlifter who recently set a powerlifting record in the 148-pound-and-under Powerlifting Bench Press World Championship sanctioned by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).
Len took home the championship by lifting 110 pounds in the 90 and older age bracket.
“I saw the current record and thought that I could beat it,” Len said with a smile. “It was that simple. It’s not that I’m so great. I just have lived a long time.”
Despite his recent accomplishment, Len describes himself not as an athlete but as a “gym rat” who began regular workouts in his early 40s.
“I got involved in a fitness program designed for business professionals who did not have a lot of time to exercise,” said Len, who worked in the steel manufacturing business at the time.
“I needed to do something to keep in shape.”
While preparing for his record-setting performance, Len worked out at the Casa fitness center three days a week.
“There is no question that weightlifting has improved my life,” Len said, while enjoying the ocean view from his fourth-floor balcony. “I like to stay active and coming to Casa eight years ago gives me a marvelous atmosphere for healthy living.”
Betsy’s path to greatness began as a child growing up in the Midwest.
“When I was nine and little and scrawny, I wanted desperately to be like my big sister and join the Riviera Club swim team in Indianapolis, my home town,” Betsy remembers. “The coach, however, said no, and suggested I go home and grow a while. Incensed, I joined the rival and then fledgling Indianapolis Athletic Club team, where I trained and competed regularly in local, state, and national meets until I left for college. It was a golden era for swimming; no butterfly invention, no pace clocks, no time standards for entries to nationals, but great team spirit.”
In the 1950s, women didn’t compete much past high school, so while talented, instead, Betsy attended college on the East Coast and graduate school at UC San Diego. She received a master’s degree in art history and a Ph.D. in literature. She also taught humanities at UCSD in the 1980s.
“Raising four children became my major focus in the 1960s, but by 1971 I was back in the pool and the ocean, living in California,” Betsy said.
These days, the Casa resident enjoys swimming in La Jolla Cove. Her most recent accomplishments were winning two first place and one second place medals in the San Diego Senior Games this summer and being inducted into the Wellesley College Hall of Fame in October.
“Swimming is my passion,” Betsy said. “I like the feeling of being one with the water. That’s easy here at Casa with the ocean outside my door.”
By Dan Chang, resident at Wesley Palms Retirement Community
A few weeks before a national CyberCycle competition took place among senior communities, Wesley Palms Retirement Community had a chance to get acquainted with this stationary smart bike. Equipped with virtual reality screens, CyberCycle connects riders from all over the world and allows them to compete with each other.
The goal of the national competition was for a team to ride as many miles as possible during a week. Since many of our team members had only ridden the bike a couple of times before the competition began our goal was simple: the Wesley Wheelers were determined to stay out of last place! However, by the third day of the competition, we learned that we were in sixth place nationwide, out of a total of 85 teams. This generated a wave of enthusiasm and a desire to hang on to that position! By the fifth day of the competition we learned that we were only about 10 miles behind a team from Alaska that was in fifth place. That night we managed to pass the Alaskans to take over fifth place and were determined not to let them recapture the lead.
We needed to build up an insurmountable lead, about 20 miles, by midnight during the last
day of the competition. However, at dinner hour the day before, we learned that we were only a few miles behind the fourth place team in New Jersey. This ignited another wave of enthusiasm and adrenaline. That night and the next morning we rode a few extra miles allowing us to pass the New Jersey team by breakfast on Saturday morning. Knowing that the race would end for us that night, the team decided to keep the bike as “busy” as possible all day Saturday to try to stay in fourth place. The lead for fourth place changed during the day and we were passed by New Jersey during the lunch hour. Two of our grittier teammates, Barbara and Phyllis, determined that they were not going to let that happen again during our dinner hour. They kept the bike busy through dinner. Well, needless to say, we passed the New Jersey team when they stopped to have their dinner. We kept riding until 9 pm PDT (12 midnight EDT). They never caught up and by then, we had built a 40-mile lead over the Alaskans so we stopped to party!
We learned a lot about ourselves, teamwork and sportsmanship during the event. Especially from the first place team from Santa Barbara. It turned out that our top rider, Dan,
was in fourth place in the individual rider’s competition, and only a few miles ahead of two of the Santa Barbara riders during the last hours of the competition. He was also only a few miles behind the third place rider (also from Santa Barbara). So our strategy was to continue to ride intermittently in order to keep the third place competitor riding, thereby preventing the fifth and sixth place riders from catching up (since Santa Barbara only had one CyberCycle). Unbeknownst to Dan, the lead riders for the Santa Barbara team had stopped riding in order to allow as many of the entire team’s riders to achieve 10 miles in order to get their “badges” and “T-shirt” for the competition. Their lead riders sacrificed their potential third and fourth-place individual rider finishes and Dan wound up in third place even though any one of those three riders could have easily passed him. What a great lesson in teamwork and sportsmanship!
Learn more about CyberCycle from our sister community, Fredericka Manor HERE.
Swimmer Betsy Jordan and Weightlifter Len Sandberg thrive at community that promotes wellbeing
Despite his recent accomplishment, Len describes himself not as an athlete but as a “gym rat” who began regular workouts in his early 40s.
