{"id":196238,"date":"2025-06-19T04:41:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T04:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/196238\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T04:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T04:41:12","slug":"powerlifting-to-debut-at-us-senior-games-where-82-year-old-grandmother-tops-the-age-ranking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/196238\/","title":{"rendered":"Powerlifting to Debut at US Senior Games Where 82-Year-old Grandmother Tops the Age Ranking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-219240\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Faith-OReilly-courtesy-photo-1024x635.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"432\"  \/>Faith O\u2019Reilly \u2013 courtesy photo<\/p>\n<p>At 82 years old, Faith O\u2019Reilly is lifting her best life.<\/p>\n<p>The Coloradoan is currently the oldest enlisted female participant in powerlifting at the 2025 National Senior Games, which will feature O\u2019Reilly\u2019s forte for the first time in its history.<\/p>\n<p>GNN has<a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodnewsnetwork.org\/?s=powerlifting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> regularly reported<\/a> on the life stories of silver lifters and the perseverance they demonstrate with an activity most assume to be limited to one\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n<p>That was when O\u2019Reilly took up powerlifting\u2014in law school at the University of Iowa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was watching it and thought, \u2018Well, I can do that,&#8217;\u201d she said of that first experience, reflecting a can-do attitude she maintained all her life.<\/p>\n<p>That confidence blossomed into a capability that saw her win multiple Iowa state championships as she lifted the double burden of weights and school\u2014graduating and going on to teach undergraduate level legal studies and paralegal work in the criminal justice field.<\/p>\n<p>After retiring and moving to a tiny Colorado town called Saguache from her native Iowa, she took up powerlifting again in 2007 and would recommend it to anyone.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: <\/strong><a title=\"Powerlifter with Down Syndrome Hailed an Inspiration After Overcoming His Challenges to Win European Gold\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goodnewsnetwork.org\/powerlifter-with-down-syndrome-hailed-an-inspiration-after-overcoming-his-challenges-to-win-double-european-gold\/\" rel=\"bookmark noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Powerlifter with Down Syndrome Hailed an Inspiration After Overcoming His Challenges to Win European Gold<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s overall good for you physically, and as you age you can have problems with bone density and losing muscle tone,\u201d she <a href=\"https:\/\/nsga.com\/athlete-of-the-month-faith-oreilly\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said according to an article<\/a> for the National Senior Games Association, where she took a gold medal in the 2023 women\u2019s triathlon relay for the 75 and older bracket in Pittsburgh, which she did with her younger sister and close friend as a team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really fun to see and interact with other people who are enjoying being more fit than the rest of our age group,\u201d she says. \u201cYou know, the oldest person who competed in Pittsburgh was 103, so that gives me a goal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>SHARE Faith\u2019s Faith In Her Abilities As She Prepares To Lift Gold This Summer\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Faith O\u2019Reilly \u2013 courtesy photo At 82 years old, Faith O\u2019Reilly is lifting her best life. The Coloradoan&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4322],"tags":[3613,1154,1630,105,67893,24386,20903,79,16,15,24254,1292],"class_list":{"0":"post-196238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-colorado","9":"tag-exercise","10":"tag-fitness","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-inspiring","13":"tag-iowa","14":"tag-seniors","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-weightlifting","19":"tag-women"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114708197137792238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}