Pasadena Senior Games Close a Season Organizers Call Their Busiest in a Decade

Jim Rigney wanted one more shot at the Nationals. So the 95-year-old cyclist drove from Tucson, Arizona, to Southern California in June to race in the Pasadena Senior Games, according to Annie Laskey, the Games’ director — because Arizona couldn’t host the sport, and Pasadena could.

He was one of about 1,200 athletes who competed in this year’s Games, which concluded June 27 — the strongest turnout in roughly a decade.

 The stakes were higher than usual: 2026 is the qualifying year for the 2027 National Senior Games in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and top finishers in Pasadena earned the right to register for the national competition.

“Pasadena Senior Games had some of the most robust participation numbers we’ve had, about 1200 athletes,” Laskey said. “And it doesn’t hurt that between this year’s World Cup and the 2028 Olympics, many people’s minds are turning to sports.”

The Games, produced by the Pasadena Senior Center, a donor-supported nonprofit, opened with archery on April 26 and wrapped up June 27 with table tennis at the Senior Center, according to the Center’s official 2026 schedule. 

Athletes 50 and older competed for medals in five-year age brackets, from 50-54 through 90-plus, in more than a dozen sports. No qualification was required to enter. Events were staged at the Rose Bowl Loop, the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center, Occidental College in Eagle Rock, Hahamongna Watershed Park in La Cañada Flintridge, venues in Arcadia and Simi Valley, El Dorado East Regional Park in Long Beach and the Senior Center itself.

Under the qualifying rules posted by the Center, the top four finishers in each age and gender category in most sports qualify for the Nationals, with Southern California qualifying competitions split between the Pasadena and San Diego Senior Games. 

The National Senior Games Association says the 2027 Games in Tulsa will run June 30 through July 11, 2027, and that athletes must be at least 50 by December 31, 2026, to be eligible.

Rigney’s drive from Tucson was one of the moments that stuck with organizers. Another came on the track at Occidental College. 

“In Track & Field, Tony ‘T.C.’ Clemons at age 60 ran the 50m dash in 6.77 seconds, bettering his gold medal time of 6.83 back in 2018 – and this after breaking his femur after that 2018 race!” Laskey said.

Charmaine Nelson, the Center’s current director of marketing and communications, told the Pasadena Weekly earlier this year that the Center is “the only senior center in the country that hosts an event like this.”

The Games were brought to Pasadena in 1993 by the late Cynthia Rosedale, then the Center’s director of events, and have been a cornerstone program of the Center since. 

“Each year is memorable and inspiring, but this year felt like there was special excitement and vitality,” Laskey said. “The Pasadena Senior Games sports competitions are for everyone, recreational as well as elite athletes, youngsters in their 50s cheering on athletes in their 90s, and vice-versa.”

Planning is underway for the 2027 season, which Laskey said will take place April through June, with more sports programming planned at the Senior Center throughout the year. 

Information is available at: https://www.pasadenaseniorcenter.org/activities-events/senior-games  or through the Senior Games office at (626) 685-6755.

The season’s lesson was the one Laskey returned to as it closed — “winning never grows old.”