Marge Alper is in the pool every day, after taking
a 47-year leave of absence from swimming.

Daily workouts make Marge Alper
a nationally ranked senior citizen.

YAACOV D. SCHOLAR SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Ely finishing first in both the 50-meter and
eestyle swimming events at a
freestyle
recent Michigan qualifying meet, Marge
Alper, age 81, qualified for her sixth ap-
pearance at the National Senior Sports Clas-
sic — the Senior Olympics — to be held May
21-28 in Tucson.
The Southfield senior, who will celebrate
her 82nd birthday this month, finished the
100 meters in 2 minutes 30.79 seconds. Her
time in the 50-meter event was 1 minute 10.28
seconds at the Michigan Senior Olympics last
summer at Macomb Community College.
"I love swimming," Alper says. "It's very exciting for
me. And the camaraderie among the seniors is un-
believable."
Encouraged to swim as a youngster after recover-
ing from polio, Alper swam through high school and
then took a 47-year leave of absence from the sport.
Upon retiring from her job as a school secretary for
the Detroit Board of Education in 1977, Alper final-
ly got back into the pool.
Marge and her husband Abe, now 95, began a wa-
ter exercise class at Southfield High School. The class
instructor encouraged her to participate in the first

O. V

Michigan Senior Olympics and, at age 64, Alper won
her first gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle.
"That gold in my first senior competition is what
kept me going," Alper says.
She generally competes two times a year: at the
Michigan Senior Olympics and the California Senior
Olympics. She and her husband spend their winters
in Palm Springs.
Alper follows a set routine that allows her to be a
competitive swimmer at age 81. "I just swim every day
and I think we eat pretty normally," she says. "We just
don't eat junk food."
Swimming a half-mile daily at least five days a week
at the CMI Health and Tennis Club in Southfield usu-
ally takes Alper about 30 minutes. She also attends
a water exercise/aerobics class at CMI at least three
days a week.
Alper believes in nutritional supplements and takes
garlic capsules, Vitamin C, multi-vitamins, Ginkgo
Miobola and aspirin. She gave up smoking in 1955
and Abe kicked the habit a year later.
The Alpers' lifestyle obviously benefits Abe as well
as Marge. A retired dentist who worked into his 80s, Abe
goes to the health club daily and still walks the track.
Marge Alpers last appearance in the National Se-

•

nior Sports Classic was in 1995 at San Antonio. She
finished in fifth place in the 50-meter freestyle with a
time of 1:16, winning a green ribbon. The San Anto-
nio competition was especially difficult, Alper says,
"because we swam in the afternoon. We usually corn-
pete in the mornings, when everybody is fresher."
But the senior swimmer may be getting better as
she gets older. She proudly notes that her 50-meter
qualifying time this year beat her 1995 national fin-
ish by six seconds.
One might think that the competition would be a
little thin in Alper's 81-84 age bracket, but there are
usually a half-dozen competitors at the state level and
15-25 people who qualify for the nationals.
"The nationals are much more competitive than the
regionals," Alper says, "much keener because many
of the swimmers are master competitors and former
swim instructors."
Every two years, the National Senior Sports Clas-
sic attracts about 5,000 participants. In preparation,
Alper varies little from her usual workout regimen. "I
don't have a coach, so I just do the best I can," she says.
"I just swim a lot to get ready for a meet."
What is her favorite side of competing? "It gives me
the opportunity to travel," she says.