A 75-year-old Army veteran and lifelong outdoorsman, Michael Sharkey spent years hiking, fishing, and skiing. More recently, he has taken up trap shooting, and he recently earned a silver medal at the Huntsman World Senior Games, hitting 80 out of 100 clay targets. Michael is also an avid gravel and road cyclist, traveling across the country and even Europe to compete. He finds cycling to be more than a sport; it is also therapeutic for his back.

Through reinvention, marriage, and curiosity, Michael has embraced a life full of adventure, from skiing three times a week to learning trap shooting from world-class instructors. Retired after years as ski patrol, a carpenter, and a watchmaker, he continues to challenge himself, stay active, and share his love of adventure with his wife.

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Rocky Jackson has always enjoyed staying active. He was an employment labor attorney for 43 years, and at age 19, he was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in 1969 out of Yakima Valley Community College, which he jokes makes him the oldest living holdout of the team now called the Cleveland Guardians. He spent his college years playing against future MLB greats, collecting enough road-trip stories to fill a book.

Since age 35, Rocky has played tennis on and off, and now in retirement, he is on the courts several times a week, even playing singles for the sheer joy of long rallies and movement. Rocky is an avid golfer who has played around the world with his wife, braving everything from beach courses to 105-degree summers. He strongly believes in cross-training workouts and is adding lap swimming into the mix. After double hip replacements in 2020, Rocky came back stronger, and at 75, he’s still playing singles tennis and living by the beliefs that “The universe always says yes” and “You have to use it or lose it.”

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Vera Koo is a first-generation Chinese American woman whose life reads like an adventure in courage and reinvention. She is a 79-year-old wife, mother of three and grandmother of six, author, entrepreneur, and retired professional athlete who broke barriers in action pistol shooting. Through her adulthood, she has enjoyed a variety of outdoor activities, including snow and water skiing, equestrian, windsurfing, and rucking and camping. Action pistol shooting is where she really excelled: Vera has been the national and world titleholder in the sport and won the Bianchi Cup women’s championship eight times. She now competes in shotgun sports, specifically in sporting clay shooting, at the Huntsman World Senior Games.

Vera’s memoirs, “The Most Unlikely Champion” and “Wisdom and Things: Essays from an Unlikely Champion,” share her remarkable journey from China and Hong Kong to the U.S., her family’s entrepreneurial success, and the resilience that carried her through loss, faith, and unexpected triumph. Vera continues to mentor others with the hope that we all discover the “unlikely champion” within ourselves.

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At just eight years old, Margie Mettenet survived a devastating car accident that left her in traction for months. Once she could walk again, she learned to run and didn’t stop: competing in track in the Junior Olympics, high school, and college. Margie also competed in high school basketball and volleyball at BYU, but after college, her 45-year love affair with high-level tennis began. A broken arm nine years ago changed everything, however. Too painful to hold a tennis racquet, Margie picked up a pickleball paddle, “just to stay active,” and got completely hooked. Now 70, Margie plays every day, holds her own against athletes in their 20s and 30s, and is a 12-year veteran of the Huntsman World Senior Games with 11 medals in basketball, tennis, and pickleball. Margie has coached high-school tennis state champions, taught at Club Pickleball USA, and raised a sports-loving family of five kids and nineteen grandkids.

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Former Junior Olympian and college football player Tim McMahon has been a masters track athlete since age 32, having competed nationwide in sprints, hurdles, long jump, and decathlon. He recently expanded his athletic pursuits by competing in masters swimming for the first time at the Huntsman World Senior Games. Just three years ago, Tim was diagnosed with stage-3 lymphoma, and he also underwent a total knee replacement last year at the age of 65. However, this New Jersey decathlete, ocean lifeguard, and lifelong competitor continues to shine bright. Now in remission and cleared to sprint again, he’s rebuilding strength, working through residual neuropathy, and training to return to world-class form.

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James Neider is the Executive Director of Cardiovascular Services for Intermountain Health’s Desert Region, leading a team of more than 75 cardiology providers and 300 caregivers. He focuses on advancing cardiovascular care, operational excellence, and team development across the region.

Previously, James directed the Heart Specialty Care & Transplant Center at Ascension Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas and managed the Comprehensive Epilepsy and Neurodiagnostic Programs at the University of Utah Hospital.

He began his career as a registered nurse specializing in heart failure, heart transplant, and cardiac diagnostics, and holds both a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and an MBA from Brigham Young University. An educator and innovator, James has served as adjunct faculty at Ensign College and co-founded the Utah END Institute and the Rocky Mountain Neurodiagnostic Society.

Outside of work, he enjoys long-distance running, reading, hiking, camping, and spending time with his wife and four children.

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At 70 years old, Bee Kilgore is proof that adventure doesn’t come with an expiration date. A retired trauma ICU nurse of 20 years who completed three international medical missions, she’s also a mountain climber and a regular on 100-mile cattle drives. Bee began competing in tennis at age eight and was a highly-ranked player from the ages of 8-21 before transitioning to pickleball five years ago. Since then, she has embraced the sport as another avenue to live boldly, traveling the world to play, compete, and teach in places including Japan, Mallorca, and England. Her achievements include three national titles, six U.S. Open titles, and the 2024 English Open Women’s 65’s Singles Championship, and she is currently ranked #6 in the Masters Senior Pro Women’s Doubles division. Here at the Huntsman World Senior Games, she competed at the top level and earned gold in all three doubles events in the combined 60’s to 70’s. Pickleball has given Bee new purpose, lasting friendships, and an ever-widening world to explore.

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At 65, Debbie Barry is a powerhouse and benefactor of people who believed in her. Once a high school drum major and avid reader, she didn’t start her fitness journey until age 39, when she lost over 50 pounds with the help of a friend. Debbie ran distance races, including a marathon and several half marathons, cycled, and learned to swim. When she was 61, Debbie tried the Sierra Gold Track Team and instantly fell in love with discus. Less than a year later, she faced aggressive triple-negative breast cancer, but kept walking, healing, and fighting. Now she’s back in the ring, breaking her discus pre-cancer personal record, and still working full-time as a certified fitness trainer. She inspires her clients and proves there is always something you can do at any age.

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