It’s about time. 101-year-old Florence Storch, spring chicken that she is, took the silver medal at the Canada 55-Plus Games. She’s peaking for gold. Can’t rush things. Heck, the Hanna, Alberta native only started competing in the sport around fifteen years ago.

How can we mere mortals go against someone who has a century of cool, calm, and collected, experience? We are putty in her hands, but fortunately her hands are handily busy with her weapon of choice: the javelin.

It’s hard not to get too effusive about Ms. Storch, knowing there isn’t a plateau she hasn't cleared or a mountain she hasn't climbed. While many of us are not sure if we are too indecisive, this woman takes decisive, and determined, and dogged - to a doggone degree.

So, right-armed with her spear and her left hand holding her walker, she heaved the javelin. She’s done 4.26 meters, but in this event she took two of her allowed six throws, stuck it 3.18 meters and called it a day. An ingénue 87-year-old Doreen Erskine chucked it 5 meters to win.

Florence grew up on a farm. Gordie Howe, the only hockey player to play in the NHL in five decades, was born on a farm.  And the “Golden Jet” Bobby Hull owed his slap shot to pitching hay on the farm in Ontario. You gotta see this picture of Bobby Hull doing just that. Built farm tough, all three.

Now let’s talk a bit of ancient history. What came first, Florence Storch or the sport of Javelin throwing?  OK, the Javelin’s been around a bit longer, having being tossed about in the pentathlon in Greece as far back as 708 B.C.

While Storch was the grand dame of these games, a lot of other seniors were also stepping out, shaking their stuff. For heaven’s sake there is even a 90+ demographic! The motto of the games, held in Strathcona County, Alberta was “Happiness is Health!”

There were 24 sports in all, and while some seemed particularly suited to the older set, like Whist, Contact Bridge, no, make that Contract Bridge, and Carpet Bowling, there were others we didn't even know older folks were allowed to watch, let alone play, such as Ice-Hockey, Swimming, and Track and Field.

In women’s ice-hockey, for example, the players had to be in good shape. They played two 20-minute periods of stop time. If the game was tied at the end of regulation, it went into sudden death (the game, not the players...)

Let’s say Florence Storch is your idol. Not a bad choice. You are turning 55 this year so in 2015 you want to be the best in women’s javelin. Here’s what you should shoot for: beat 20.14 meters because that’s the mark that won the 2014 games, flung by a B. Dion. Couldn't find any more information about her, she’s probably busy either signing autographs or fleeing the paparazzi.

You've won the Canada + 55 games. Way to go. Where do you go now? To the Masters Athletics. These games officially started in Toronto, Canada in 1975. So what’s a wonderful women’s mark to beat in the javelin to be the best heaver? Why not top 100-year-old Ruth Frith of Australia? Her mark still stands at 6.43 meters. Many of us sad-sack types can’t even walk that far to fetch donuts.

Ruth Frith, who unfortunately passed away in February 2014, was a piece of work who didn't go for vegetables.

“Don’t eat vegetables, because I never eat vegetables. I know people that like diets that will scream at me, (but) don’t eat vegetables. I never have.”

Don’t let the grand-kids hear about that. Or yourself. But as the saying goes, there are horses for courses, and here’s what she mastered without vegetables coursing through her. She holds the record in the W85 Women’s Triple Jump. She has the marks to beat in the W100 Discus, Shot Put, Hammer Throw...I can’t keep writing, my arm is too sore...

Florence may be in a league of her own, but other golden oldies have some pretty neat new dog tricks they’re showing around town. 75-year-old Charles Stolfus took up roller skating. Ed Delano, of the same age, bicycled some 3,000+ miles from Davis, California to Worcester, Massachusetts for a school reunion.

And let us not forget St. Nick, Santa Claus. He’s gotta be, what now 80? And he’s still going strong delivering presents and presence worldwide, at least one night a year that he’ll admit to.

Presidential adviser to Woodrow Wilson, Bernard M. Baruch, once said “To me-old age is 15 years older than I am.” Florence Storch is living a page from that outlook.

We've all heard the saying about life being a play. Florence has hit the daily double with hers combining length and excellence.

Encore!

Storch says “she’s not quitting anytime soon....why stop” That’s an attitude more of us could start with.

They are going to bare and bear it in Italy: pain, pride, fortitude and finesse, packaged with power and precision. The showcase: the 2014 Women’s World Volleyball Championship. Volleyball rocks. You don’t need pricey skates or costly skis, just a ball, net, and knees – with kneepads. Excellent economics - that’s why 141 teams, many of them from the rougher sections of global-town, went through qualifiers. Finally, now, we’ll see 24 teams contesting 102 matches

Actually, Russia’s the big bear here. They've won the last two of these, and five in all. They and the lesser lights will be going for a trophy, itself sporting a new design, heralded by the FIVB, apparently chock full of meaning and symbolism. But to these eyes it looks like an umbrella case coming apart at the top - or a dunce’s hat that’s been frayed.

The 12 splinters at the top represent the 12 members of each team coming together (or apart as the case may be.)

Italy is in Pool A with the Dominican Republic, Germany, Argentina, Croatia, and Tunisia. Italy won the 2002 FIVB Women’s Championship. Number two ranked, the USA, in Pool C, has never taken gold at this event. All the pools will thresh out the best from the rest September 23 to October 12.

On the topic of coming together, the FIVB offices come together in Lausanne, Switzerland. They’re gorgeous. What is it with major sports having their headquarters in Switzerland anyway? There are about 47 sports bodies that have their headquarters there.

Got a bit off track...

The FIVB may be a little off track, off volleyball main street, but every volleyball player, to a woman knows, if she wants to hit the heights locally or globally she had  better learn those “ABC’s” that end in an “ers.” Because the best are receivers, setters, servers, diggers, blockers and spikers – but only if they’ve sweated and panted in interminable team practices and grunted and groaned in formidable team hoisting weight room sessions. As a boost, for the short explosive bursts crucial in volleyball, some take the dietary supplement Creatine.

In spite of superior training a lot of “itis” injuries, like Elbow bursitis, Shoulder and Wrist and Achilles tendinitis, Knee osteoarthritis, and Shoulder capsulitis can wreck havoc due to chronic over usage or split-second sudden strain.

Apart from physical pain, does pain come from scandals possibly staining the sport, or does sportsmanship, generally, rule the court?

Well, other than FIVB General Director Fábio André Dias Azevedo and  FIVB President Dr. Ary S. Graça Filho under more than a cloud of suspicion for some questionable contracts they were involved with back in their Brazil days, and other than,  in 2012, the Korean Volleyball Association banning players - four men and two women - for LIFE for their roles in match fixing, the sport seems pretty clean.   

If this makes you feel better, the FIVB says it is against “...doping, match fixing and illegal betting in sport as required by the IOC.” They had to reiterate this in light of the controversy surrounding a women’s Olympic qualifying game in which the Thais thought Japan lay down in a game against Serbia, ending Thailand’s chances to make the Olympics for the first time. Thais social media sites went crazy but the ruling came down that Japan’s 2-3 loss to Serbia was not fixed.

Let’s get back to basics and beginnings. Volleyball was invented in 1895 and hails from Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA. It is advertised as a non-contact sport, which is a laugh, because lots of funny bones hit the floors, trying to prevent “kills.”

Speaking of funny, guess what a Libero is. Give up? A Libero is a stalwart defensive player, singled out by a different color jersey who can come and go on the back row at will - when the ball is not in play - without counting against the substitution limit each team is allowed per set.

What? Obviously this Libero mumbo-jumbo speaks to the sophistication of volleyball standards, stipulations, and situations. It’s complicated as heck but, oddly enough, it seems simple to understand if you watch it.

Let’s take a watch at Brazil. This team has a lot of pressure on it, given that country’s flameout in the soccer World Cup earlier this summer. It has won TEN FIVB World Grand Prix crowns, but is an 0’fer in this FIVB deal. While we see if they can break that streak the Brazilian coach, “ZRG” Ze Roberto Guimaraes, is looking at Russia as the team to beat

Volleyball at this stratospheric level is an intricate puzzle that teems in both physicality and mentality, with both used throughout, in what is essentially a giant, metaphorically speaking, probe. Probing for weaknesses and gaps in the other side’s armor is where it’s all at. That’s integral, often nuanced, and usually not “showy” stuff.

But volleyball - served up with disguised shots, sensational spikes or big-bad-brash blocks - gives this game actions and reactions as powerful as baseball’s grand slam or basketball’s dunk.

If a team wants to win, it will have to survive the first pool, which features five matches in six days. Throughout these bouts it’ll need conditioning and cerebral power for sure, and a little luck if possible. It’ll need to avoid injury and should try to shun going off the deep end in elation or depression - while maintaining urgency. No easy stuff here.

That’s why they call this the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship.

It’s not a slam dunk as to who will win the FIBA World Women’s Basketball Championship in Turkey, but this much is certain: the USA is looking good and the games should be more competitive.

The American team is deep, with ten Olympians from 2012 returning, but now that three-time Olympic winner Tamika Catchings has withdrawn due to back and neck pains, it does open up a spot for an up-and-coming youngster.

But that's micro. Let's go macro and answer the question on everyone’s mind. When are we going to see more women dunk? According to Brian Palmer, it’s not so much that women are about 7” shorter than men; it’s that their vertical jump isn’t dunk worthy. American basketball college girls, for example, can jump, on average, about 19” - a long way off the 28” men can do. 

Anyway, 16 teams, including number 1 ranked USA and number 9 ranked Canada, will round robin it with the other teams. Turkey is ranked 13th – but having the home crowd will either boost or break them. 

The October 5th final will be played in the pretty-close-to-brand-spanking-new Ülker Sports Arena which was built in 2012.  For sport and language wonks here’s the full name in Turkish: Fenerbahçe Uluslararası Spor Kompleksi Ülker Spor Arena.

Any which way you slice it and say it, 13,800 fans can cram the stadium to check out the best...

To best help grow the game, a full-fare ticket, which will get you into two games, will cost “10 to 35 Turkish Lira (€4 to €14) for the Group Phase and for the Qualifications for Quarter-Finals games...” For the quarters, semis, or finals you’ll pay “...from 20 to 100 Turkish Lira (€8 to €40)." So we’re talking US $5.32 to $53.2

While Turkish women don’t earn many Lira, Euros, or Dollars and suffer from low labor participation compared to their European counterparts - and don’t stack up well economically with their competitors according to OECD statistics - their women’s basketball league and national team are competitive as evidenced by their respectable finishing of fifth, at the 2012 London Olympics, and their silver medal win in the 2011 EuroBasket tournament.

Coach Ceyhun Yildizoglu is pleased with his team’s preparation. 

While the FIBA 2010 World Basketball Championship sported some pretty lopsided scores, no less than USA CEO Jim Tooley figures his veteran team will have a tougher go this time around. 

Given that the States has won 8 of the 16 Championships, with Russia another 6 and Brazil and Australia 1 each, it would be great to get some new-winner blood into the mix.

Basketball, globally, is growing, if not in leaps in bounds, at least in high jumps. As far back as 2007, 450 million souls were either shirking homework or shunning work, shooting hoops.

And outside of those who play in the American WNBA, or those who go for bucks in European or Asian leagues, international tests like this are the big deal.  (Currently, sadly, with the Greek, Italian, and Spanish economies in dire straits, women basketball jobs there are dwindling and salaries are, not surprisingly, shrinking.)

One other worry about the women’s game is the lack of quantity and quality of offensive finishes. Columnist Paul Nilsen attributes it to coaches stressing too much defense - zone defense - with the attendant lack of time to create offensive ingenuity and fluidity. Nevertheless, many women can pull up and shoot the three, or drive to the basket, with the best of the men. And all women - and men - should aspire to the greatness that was Ann Meyers Drysdale, the American UCLA Bruin who made a QUADRUPLE-DOUBLE of 20 points, 10 steals, 10 assists, and 14 rebounds. She was the first to do so in Division 1 NCAA basketball.

For this championship the ladies’ ages basically range from the late teens to early thirties. Although, get this, South Korea’s team has a High schooler, Park Ji-soo, who is just fifteen. She’s 6’5”. (Heights average around 5’ 10.”)

But no matter the age, no matter the height, no matter the anything, for any team at this level to be successful their twelve players have to play for the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back.

Nevriye Yılmaz, the 34-year-old Bulgarian-born Turkish captain, epitomizes the team-first credo. A team can’t rally late in a game without spark, grit, and excellence and Turkey proved it can summon all three as they stormed back in the fourth quarter to beat Australia in the tune-up Zafer Cup. The 6’4” Yilmaz poured in 32 points. 

Let’s take a step back. If you remember back in 1953 when American president Harry S. Truman spilled the beans that that country created a hydrogen bomb, you’ll probably remember the explosion heard far and wide when folks learned that this was the year the FIBA Women’s basketball wing-ding came into being.

No? 

Oh.

Anyway, Chile was the host. Ten countries took part and the States won.

Undoubtedly the FIBA wants women’s basketball to “win” – they've got a stop clock on their website ticking off the time until it starts Sept. 27th, but many of the videos on that first screen deal with the draw for the 2014 event. The draw is, was, and forever will be, not only anti-climactic; it’s bureaucratic. It’s not dramatic. Come up with more stellar stuff.

For sure the women basketballers will.

The Ryder Cup is like the Stanley Cup playoffs. Both are wars. The competition is wild, but the golfers don’t go unshaven like the hockey players do. Yet.

 Tiger Woods once talked of Ryder Cup gamesmanship – not sportsmanship.

Whatever ship we’re talking, it’ll be Europe’s best against Uncle Sam’s and right now Europe, after a stunning come-from-behind win on US soil in 2012, holds bragging rights. All they have to do is tie the event to keep the title. The battle will be struck at the Gleneagles course in Perthshire, Scotland September 23 to 28. (For those that want to sow their winning oats, or drown their wanning sorrows, go check out the Glenturret, Scotland’s oldest whisky distillery nearby.) For you Scots, congratulations: home-grown Stephen Gallacher made the team as a wildcard pick. And Ian Poulter, who has won seven Ryder Cup matches in a row, along with Lee Westwood, round out the European side.

Right now the Europeans have the big guns in McIlroy, Kaymer, Garcia, and Rose. But the USA is captained by icon Tom Watson. Is his captaincy an edge over Europe’s? Paul McGinley is well aware of Watson’s playing record, but he’s got the horses - and he has his own memory of sinking the putt on the 18th of the 2002 Ryder Cup to clinch a European win…and it may not do wonders for American players to know that their 64- year-old boss can beat them on any given day. Right now, with the exception of thoroughbred Phil Mickelson, and Ricky Fowler who wowed in EVERY major T5, T2, T2, T3 this year, the USA side sorta resembles the Expendables.

Watson’s not leaving anything to chance. He’s taken the time, through talking and playing with candidates to get “inside their heads…” as he puts it. He says they’re motivated to the “nth degree.”

Watson’s picked Hunter Mahan, who won the 2014 Barclays; he is the only American “team-worthy” to win a tournament this year since the mashie niblick was put out to pasture – or at least since this past April when Matt Kuchar won. He also picked Keegan Bradley, and Webb Simpson. He wanted players whose swings wouldn't crumble under pressure. (Truth be known, Watson would like to scrap the “wild card picks” outright.) 

Watson feels complacency helped capsize the USA team in 2012 when they squandered the huge lead. He knows that won’t be a factor this time. (But lingering shame on the American side might be either a killer or a catalyst.)

Watson, for what it’s worth, is the LAST captain to win the Ryder Cup while on the road. 

Road or home, the 2014 U.S. Ryder Cup uniforms, to paraphrase the UK Telegraph's wordsmith, Matthew Norman, are incredibly execrable.  

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said “A man comes to measure his greatness by the regrets, envies and hatreds of his competitors.” If that is the case, no wonder the Ryder Cup has seen its share of contentiousness, like, no pun intended, the contentiousness on par with what American Paul Azinger and the Spanish magician Seve Ballesteros unleashed from as far back as 1989. Or the rough sailing as evidenced when Tiger and Phil played together in 2004. 

Call it conduct unbecoming or misconduct becoming common… 

Outside of Phil Mickelson, who will be playing in his tenth Ryder Cup, all eyes will beam in on the glory of Rory. McIlroy, if he could be cloned, what with his winning the Open, The World Series Championship of Golf, and the PGA, would singlehandedly preclude even holding this event. And, for good measure, Justin Rose won the Scottish Open and the Quicken Loans National 2014 just before Rory’s rampage – so that makes these two the hottest guys going. 

In your excitement to get off the fence and scramble for either side make sure you don’t buy hot tickets and make doubly sure your tickets get you into the Ryder Cup itself; many ticket hospitality “packages” - worth 100s of pounds - do not.

Our aforementioned Paul Azinger may have been involved in his least Ryder Cup controversial – or sensational - act when he opined that Tiger Woods should not be on this year’s Ryder Cup. Tiger agreed. He told Tom Watson so. Of the seven appearances Tiger has made in the Ryder Cup, his side only won once.

Wince.

Azinger was captain when the Americans last won in 2008. To the Americans, it must seem like decades ago. This team could also use “Zinger’s” incredible bunker play, as evidenced in the 2002 Ryder Cup when he holed his bunker shot on the 18th to keep the States in the game. He and his caddy slapped hands so hard the gallery fell down.

Ryder Cup manners, as alluded to, are rarer than a composed Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Every civilized person rues the riotous group hug on the 17th green at Brookline in 1999 after Justin Leonard sank a 50 footer - and regrets that Jose Maria Olazábal couldn't then sink his putt to shut Uncle Sam up.

While the pundits may disagree on who will win this year, here’s one thing they can all agree on: there is no more pressure-packed position to be in than having to play Sunday in individual head-to-head matches. You've only got your country, or continent, on your shoulders. 

It’s going to crush some – and catapult others.