“I can't do that bastard to do now.”

Nadia Comăneci, 63 years old, the legend of gymnastics, who in 1976, in Montreal, obtained the first note of 10 in an Olympic competition, was considered by numerous sport historians to the most important performance of all time. The 14 -year -old girl has revolutionized the artistic gymnastics, passing by her name another 6 maximum notes within the same edition of the Olympic Games.

Five times the Olympic champion and twice world champion, Nadia Comăneci, who now lives in the United States, has told how she retains her excellent physical form.

“In my time, the athletes were competing, then withdrawing. In the 1980s, I stopped doing sports because I didn't have enough information on how to maintain your body to optimize your long-term health.

I thought all this was about genetic heritage. But I was playing football with my friends to have fun and I woke up. I told myself that it can not be good, especially for a former athlete, ”said Comăneci.

“The habits have changed me totally when I came to the US and discovered Gym. We have a house in Venice Beach, California, and the first room was just about us. There was sports Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, I often saw him. That's how I met another lifestyle that then became an integral part of my existence.”

“I realized that my body worked other muscles than those I was used to and I felt better. This was the most important thing. I even got to think better. Now I do sports 40 minutes every day, wherever I am, ”Nadia added.

“And I do it in full knowledge. The body tells you what to do. For example, I do not run, because I feel that I erode my joints too quickly.

I am in a grandfather physical form, but I can no longer jump with two complete rotations. If I miss that sensation, I climb the beam, make a few returns, or go to the ground carpet, where I execute some artistic elements. I have retired from gymnastics for many years, but I have always been close to sports, ”said Nadia Comăneci.

Carl Lewis, former athlete: “Now it is enough to look at food and get fat immediately”

At the age of 64, American Carl Lewis was, in the 80s-90s, the fastest man on earth. At 30, the athlete set the world record at 100 meters: 9.86 seconds. 9 times the Olympic medalist at Sprint and the length of length and 8 times world champion, Lewis is currently a coach of young athletes at the University of Houston.

Carl Lewis at the Paris/Photo Olympic Games: Arturo Holmes (Getty Images)

“Everything has changed when I turned 60. At 40 and 50 I didn't feel much. But at 60 everything is much harder. Now and if I look at food, I get fat. And I can't sleep all night. That annoys me the worst. And, of course, I mention twice a week asking me, “Why does my back hurt?” Or “What is this jerk in the leg?”, Carl Lewis told the inconvenience of aging.

“Every year I am glad when I manage to do something I did not think so far. I decided to pick up 150 kilograms until I turn 60, I reached 130. In another year I jumped with the parachute. At 63 I proposed to do the spark. I started to train six months before, but I still did it.

“It may take longer until I turn 65, but I will still do the swing. And at 65, I want to ride 65 miles by bicycle in one day. Until now, I have not exceeded 40 miles,” added Carl Lewis.

“I always felt that you need two or three reasons to go ahead. I feel better, physically and mentally, when I do sports and keep my weight under control. Maybe it's a splash of vanity in the middle, because, to be serious: most of my life I ran with the body more or less bare! But I know I want to live 100 years. That's why I try not to fall into the trap and tell me: “Ah, you were a superflus, so you are a superman.” No, I'm an ordinary man, ”concluded American Carl Lewis.

Cheryl Miller, a former basketball player: “I was stupid that I did not operate on my knees earlier”

Double winner of the university championship, Cheryl Miller (61 years old) won along with colleagues from the US basketball team in 1984. Ceryl, Regie Miller's sister, former NBA player, coached the Phoenix Mercury (WNBA) and did a job as a reporter and an analyst for ESPN and ABC Sports.

“The last time I played basketball as it should at 27-28. The knee pains were already tormenting, and all those movements did not deserve the effort. I had bone beaks and in the front, and in the back of the knees. I couldn't go for more than 20 minutes, then I had to go home and put my ice on my feet, ”said the former player.

In 2023 and 2024, Miller underwent arthroplasty surgery (total knees prosthesis). “I couldn't even ride my bike. Why did I wait so long? Because I was stupid,” said Cheryl Miller.

“Now I have a new life. I am like a child in the sweetness shop. I learn to run again. I can enter the basketball court, to move, to throw at the basket. I wake up at four in the morning, organize my day, read from the Bible and then go out the door. I go on hiking, I run and oo total joy ”, He added the former basketball player, who has not yet returned to the basketball game.

“I am curious how I would do, but I still don't have the courage to play. It is nice to know that one day I could run on the ground again, to jump, to register, to recover the ball, to do or to be failed. But I am still far from these things, ”concluded Cheryl Miller.

Jerry Rice, a former NFL player: “I have a South African mastiff, we like to run together”

Jerry Rice, 62, played American football, being a ALL-time leader in several chapters, including the author of most touchdows, and winning three Super Bowl editions next to San Francisco 49ers.

Jerry Rice / Photo: Imago Images

“I was not the best athlete, not the fastest on the field. They were more talented players than me, who were doing wonders on the field. They worked a lot, but I had to work harder. And now I try to be a good man, it's in my DNA to strive,” Rice said.

“I want people to know that, after retiring from an activity you have practiced for a long time, life does not end. But some are seriously depressed after their career is over. I am happy every morning that I wake up and do sports, although I know it will be painful. But I know that I do something useful for my body ”explained the former American football player, who declared a fan of Crossfit, a way to keep his kilograms under control.

“I also have a dog, a South African Mastiff, and we run together. Sometimes my knee swells and gets me when I get out of bed. But you have to fight with pain, because the goal is to be active and flexible in old age,” concluded Jerry Rice.