Care home residents boxing clever as they train for their own Olympics

Residents at 15 homes are competing in five specially adapted sports.
Care home Olympics
Laura Paterson5 July 2021

Care home residents are picking up their boxing gloves as the train for their own version of the Olympics.

With just weeks to go before the Tokyo 2020 games get underway, 15 care homes in Scotland are competing against each other in five specially designed sports.

As well as trying to land the most punches on boxing pads, they are substituting a bean bag for a shot put, and recording who can complete the most 400m stints in July either on foot or by wheelchair.

The other sports include their own version of Olympic golf in a nine-hole pitch and putt, and seated volleyball using a balloon.

Margaret McNicol (80) and Deputy Manager Rachael Hope sporting Team Jesmond t-shirts

Residents have been in training throughout June before the opening ceremonies held at each home.

They will compete throughout July before a closing ceremony at the end of the month.

Elsie Connell, 87, who lives at Renaissance Care Jesmond Care Home in Bridge of Don, Aberdeen said: “I would have never thought I would be boxing at this age, but after trying it, I am really enjoying it and have seen some improvement already.

“It’s great to be up and moving and all having a good laugh together – we are one big team here, so we’ve all been supporting each other, although a bit of competitive spirit has been keeping us all very motivated.

“I can’t wait for the competition and closing ceremonies – I’m going for gold.”

Elsie

Nancy Weir, 85, resident at Renaissance Care Croftbank House in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, said: “It’s been brilliant fun getting ready for our very own Olympics, and if the opening ceremony is anything to go by, the event itself will be a blast.

She added: “I felt honoured to carry the Olympic torch, and a wee glass of prosecco made it even more special.”

Renaissance Care operations director, Yvonne Mackenzie, said holding their own version of the Olympics “felt like the perfect way to bring everyone together”.

She said: “Encouraging physical activity for our residents is extremely important and we really wanted to create something fun that would get everyone involved.

“The residents across each of the homes have been enjoying the training and we have already seen a great lift in spirits as they get in touch with their competitive side.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in