Well, we know staying active is an important component to healthy aging, and that is at the heart of the Kentucky Senior Games, taking place at multiple venues across the state through next month.

The games are comprised of 20 competitive events for people ages 50 and older.

Over the weekend, more than 100 senior athletes gathered at the North Lexington Family YMCA to compete in the Pickleball event.

Kentucky Edition was at the competition to find out what inspired them to go for gold in their golden years.

It is on repeat.

The next chapter initiative focused on the issues facing Kentucky's aging population and their loved ones.

The Kentucky Senior Games is the first major event that we posted here at the Outdoor Pickleball Center at the North Family YMCA.

We host our state games every year, but every other year is a qualifying year for the National Games and this is one of those years.

We are about, oh, three quarters of the way through our sports this year.

We've had over 130 people come through here excited about playing the sport of pickleball.

It's been really wonderful.

My sister got me into it.

We had never experienced a tournament and so I thought, Oh, why not?

Let's just see what it is out there.

And I like playing different opponents.

You know, we've gotten comfortable with what we normally play with.

So being exposed to others was great.

And my friends.

Here.

This is my first time.

I was a tennis player for years and heard about pickleball and decided I would just give it a try.

I've been playing since last August and fell in and met a lot of fun people and they're playing tournaments.

I'm like, Oh, I'm getting some tournaments.

And I saw this came up and I'm like, okay, I'm over 60.

I'll get in this game.

Obviously it's for health and fitness, but you have a lot of them in there.

Athletes in their eighties who will tell you I do it because I'm competitive.

They love seeing the same people year after year.

And if they happen to go to nationals, they'll meet up with them there.

But they still like being competitive.

Yep, very competitive.

I don't like losing.

I'll just say that.

Everybody is competitive in pickleball.

Everybody that's out here is extremely competitive and they play to win.

But they're having fun while they're doing it and they're all great sportsmen and sportswomen.

You have some people that have never stopped competing or at least practicing their sport since high school or college.

And then you have others that have just played a couple of years.

Playing tennis in elementary school, junior high high school, and then in college.

I stopped when I got married and I started playing in February of this year and then pretty good.

So I've been playing pick Them Off between eight and nine years.

I really enjoy playing pickleball.

This is basically the exercise and I can't if I'm 77 years old, I coach pickleball in our area.

If you can put as much effort into pickleball as what you want to so a person that's 80 year old can come out volley and play and get just as much enjoyment out of it.

I tell them it's a mind game.

If you want to enjoy it, you can enjoy it and get a good exercise.

We have people who don't start.

They're still in their eighties.

So many of them say, You know, I never got that opportunity.

By golly, I'm going to do it now.

We have a lot of women who are in their seventies who look for Title nine, so this may be the first time they have ever gotten to compete.

And so that's really special for them.

As you get older, you know, back in the day I played a lot of tennis tournaments, so I feel like I'm reliving my childhood in a way and getting to enjoy that experience again.

You hear all the time in the news about the loneliness suffered by seniors.

It has that benefits the mental health component of it.

It has, you stretching your horizons.

Trying something new.

Meeting new people.

And I mean seeing my hair look lonely is nice.

The top four athletes in each sport and each age division qualify for the national Senior games taking place in Iowa next year.

More than 12,000 athletes from around the country are expected to compete.

And you can find a variety of aging related topics and other helpful resources at Katie Dorgan.

Next chapter.