ORIENTAL, N.C. (WNCT) — Fay Bond discovered her talent for jumping unexpectedly.
“My husband died in 2011, and I had to step across the ditch to get to his grave,” Bond said. “And my daughter said, ‘Oh mama you can do the senior Olympics’.”
Her 67-year-old daughter, Irma Bond was an All-Conference and MVP athlete in track and field in high school and together they are competing in the 2017 National Senior Games in Birmingham, Alabama.
“I’m not the fastest person in the state but I compete, and there are so many people that just don’t go out there,” Irma Bond said.
Irma Bond’s love for sports began while playing tag football with her brothers, and she continued her involvement as a sports activity coordinator at a local college.
Irma Bond shared her love of sports with her mother and through Irma Bond’s encouragement Fay Bond has continued to stay active and vows to keep going as long as she can.
“When they come in and say, ‘Oh I’m too old to do that,’ I say, ‘no honey, I’m 93. If I can do it you certainly can,'”Fay Bond said.
Irma Bond has already broken all the running long jump records for the 55-59, 60-64 and 65-69 age groups in North Carolina.
Both Fay and Irma Bond already won an award ahead of the competition when they were selected as 2017 Humana Game Changers out of more than 10,400 seniors competing.
“Game changers do two things: number one, on their own they exhibit the qualities we are looking for like trying to stay healthy,” John Flowe, Humana sales manager, said. “Another thing a game changer does is to try to set examples for other people.”
Fay Bond will compete in shot put, discus and long jump, while Irma will compete in the 50-meter, 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter races, as well as long jump.
The games are from June 2 to June 15. You can watch live broadcasts of the games once they begin here.