CHARLOTTE, N.C., August 8, 2024 — This week, South Charlotte’s premier life plan community is staging its own Olympic Games, giving seniors fueled by the intensely competitive spirit they’ve seen in Paris a chance to show their stuff. The opening ceremony for the Southminster Olympics, held on August 5th, featured Southminster Resident Bill Claytor who was selected to be a torchbearer for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the historic year the torch was first taken into space.
Claytor, who completed 30 marathons as a competitive runner, joined 14 other “local heroes” that year who passed the torch along one-kilometer segments down Beatties Ford Road to The Square in Uptown Charlotte. They were among 12,000 people who carried the Olympic torch 16,200 miles through the U.S.
“The shorts and shirt I wore as a torchbearer in 1996 still fit,” Claytor said, “so I wore them and carried my keepsake torch for the opening ceremony of the Southminster Olympics this year. Claytor was president of the Mecklenburg County Bar when he was an Olympic Torchbearer, and had volunteered for a quarter-century with Habitat for Humanity, his church and the Red Cross.
The competition during this week’s Southminster Olympics is a natural fit for a life plan community that believes age is not an obstacle to anything. Other Southminster residents and family members also have ties to the Olympics, including Senior Olympian Becky Vaughn and Debbie Clough, whose grandson Carson Clough is a member of the elite USA Triathlon team in Paris.
Judy Rae, who played high school field hockey, basketball and lacrosse will be one of some 60 residents plus employees who will compete this week. Rae obsessively watches cycling events during the Olympics and Tour de France, and is intent on going for the gold in walking and other events at Southminster. There will also be events for residents with more limited physical capabilities, including those in Embrace Health, such as seated volleyball.
The Southminster Olympics is spearheaded by Life Enrichment, Fitness and Spiritual Wellness, along with Collective Therapy, an outside group with a gym on campus.