Olympic Gymnast Jaritol, 83, Garners Sports Illustrated Honor

December 3, 2028 — Geriatric gymnast Enid Jaritol was named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year after becoming the oldest person to ever win an Olympic gold medal.

Jaritol, 83, edged out all-around champion So-Tai Nee of China in the uneven bars competition at the Bismarck, N.D. Olympics in August.  She is the first great-grandmother to win the gold.

The award honors athletes who symbolize “in character and performance the ideals of sportsmanship,” Sports Illustrated said in a statement. Jaritol is the first Olympian to win the honor since swimmer Michael Phelps garnered it in 2008.

Olympic champion Enid Jaritol

“Enid Jaritol as the 2028 Sportsperson of the Year was the easiest choice I have made,” Tina Brown, the online magazine’s managing editor, said in a news release. “Look at what she did in Bismarck last summer. It is so obvious that she changed not only gymnastics, but also the entire Olympic landscape.”

Jaritol, who didn’t even begin gymnastics until she turned 70, indeed has revolutionized a sport that was once thought to force its participants into retirement by the time they reached their early 20s.

Twenty years ago, Chinese gymnasts were suspected of lying about their ages so they could enter competition before they were old enough to compete. Now,  with modern medicine providing people with essential cures for the bone and muscle deterioration associated with aging, they can look forward to a long career in gymnastics and don’t have to fudge their birth records.

“We used to have gymnasts who still played with dolls,” Brown said. “Now we have athletes who quilt and play bingo.”