Veteran Spanish driver Carlos Sainz won the gruelling Dakar Rally for a fourth time on Friday, becoming at 61 the oldest winner of the race
Team Audi Sport's Spanish driver Carlos Sainz (C,R) and his Spanish co-driver Lucas Cruz of (C,L) celebrate on their car after crossing the finish line of stage 12 of the Dakar rally 2024 (Pic: AFP)
With three wins already under his belt before Dakar Rally 2024 title, Carlos Sainz had nothing to prove in this year's event, especially as he also had two World Rally championship titles to his name. But the 61-year-old struck a stunning blow for the more senior sportsmen and women around by claiming his fourth Dakar Rally 2024 in Saudi Arabia on Friday to become the oldest winner of the gruelling race. In that vein, Mid-Day picks out five other sexagenarians (and older) who have rocked the sporting world.
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Eliza Pollock, 63, archery
When the 1904 Olympics were held in St Louis, 63-year-old Eliza Pollock made the 350-mile journey from Cincinnati, where she competed for the local archery club, to take part. Sadly for Pollock she had a younger, sharper-eyed nemesis in Lida Howell, her Cincinnati Archers teammate, who took both individual gold medals. Emma Cooke, a sprightly 56, took both silvers leaving Pollock to pick up the two bronzes. Aged 63 years and 333 days when she, not surprisingly, won the team gold, Pollock is the oldest women's Olympic gold medallist. British equestrian competitor Lorna Johnstone is the oldest female Olympian, aged 70 when she took part in her third Games in 1972.
SOMOS CAMPEONES!!
— Carlos Sainz (@CSainz_oficial) January 19, 2024
Tengo la suerte de tener a mi lado al mejor! Has hecho un @dakar fantástico @LucasCruz74! Todo esto es gracias a ti! 💪🏻💪🏻 pic.twitter.com/nZ1wjglQEf
Oscar Swahn, 64, shooting
Quite apart from having probably the most impressive beard ever to appear at the Olympics -- it was thick and white and reached halfway down his chest -- Oscar Swahn is also the oldest person ever to win Olympic gold, pipping Pollock by almost a year. Born in 1847, the Swedish Swahn would have entered this list if he had packed it in after his first Olympics in 1908 when, aged 60, he won two gold medals in the running deer single shot (individual and team) and a bronze medal in the running deer double shot individual. But he returned for his home Games in Stockholm four years later, winning the gold in the running deer team event at the age of 64 years and 258 days. Still not satisfied, Swahn (and his beard) pitched up in Antwerp in 1920. A silver medal in the running deer team event made the 74-year-old the oldest medallist at any Olympics, a record that is unlikely ever to be broken.
Satchel Paige, 59, baseball
Pitcher Satchel Paige did not become a champion after the age of 60 but did play his last pro baseball game on June 21, 1966, for the Peninsula Grays of the Carolina League when he was just two weeks short of his 60th birthday -- and given the confusion around his actual date of birth he gets a pass. After 24 years in Negro League baseball, Alabama-born Paige made his MLB debut for Cleveland Indians in 1948, a year after Jackie Robinson's appearances for the Brooklyn Dodgers broke the segregation barrier. Paige was 42 at the time, still the oldest to make his debut, and pitched Cleveland to the World Series. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1971.
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Fred Davis, 67, snooker/billiards
An eight-time World Snooker Championship winner from 1948 to 1956, Fred Davis had two major obstacles in his professional career. First was that his brother was 15-time world champion Joe Davis -- so Fred could never really claim to be the best in his family -- and the second was two heart-attacks. The second of these occurred not long before the 1974 world championships when at the age of 61 the Englishman beat Alex Higgins 15-14 on the way to the semi-finals where he lost to eventual winner Ray Reardon. He reached the semis again four years later and made his last world championship appearance aged 70. His last pro match came in 1992 at the age of 79. He always maintained that billiards, rather than snooker, was his first love so it was fitting that his last triumph on the baize came in 1980 when, at the age of 67, he won the World Billiards Championship. He reached the final again three years later, losing to Rex Williams.
Sobieslaw Zasada, 91, rally
When it comes to rally driving it appears that Sainz is but a schoolboy in short pants when set beside the Polish driver Sobieslaw Zasada. Only a stripling of 38 when he claimed the first of three European Rally Championship titles, Zasada made his WRC debut in 1973, aged 43. He then retired -- until 2021 when he returned for the WRC's Safari Rally in Kenya. His race, sadly, did not turn out well, a series of collisions ruling him out on the opening day. But at 91 years of age, he is easily the oldest competitor ever in WRC.
(With AFP inputs)
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