A most common occurrence at the 2025 Ontario 55+ Summer Games that wrapped up Thursday in Sudbury: a local resident, usually of the age to qualify as a Games participant, wanders across one of the 17 or so local venues that served as sites to the sporting competitions.

Seeing only signage along the road-side, the conversation follows a very consistent pattern: 1) what is going on? who are all of these retirees who have come to town? 2) how do I participate?

If you are among the hundreds who had these thoughts cross your mind, worry not; you are not alone.

Chatting with a whole slew of the Games participants these past three days, it was evident that many parts of the province shared the same lived experience, even as the provincial government looks to expand and enhance an athletic competition that appeals to an ever increasing percentage of the population – and voting base.

The Games are run under the auspices of the OSGA (Ontario Senior Games Association) and while District 3 (Sudbury-Nipissing) has long existed, it became active this past spring only as a means to garner local entries in an event hosted right here in their hometown.

Talk to veterans of the Games and they will very quickly sell you on the virtues of the celebration that brings together these shining examples of Sport for Life mantras.

“It’s a great event; it really is,” noted prediction walker Joan Heath from Tottenham, marking her debut in this sport but her second discipline via which she has qualified for the Games. “My husband and I started with golf. A couple of years ago, we both qualified. I didn’t qualify in golf this year – but I still wanted to go.”

“I am not a swimmer and got injured in pickleball, so I thought I would do predictive walking.”

For the uninitiated, the undertaking involves covering either a 1km or 3km circuit, either with or without nordic poles, with the goal to come as close as possible to your predicted time – without having any timing aids or such while you are out walking.

“You just try and be consistent - but it’s hard to gauge,” offered Heath.

Weather, course conditions, the pace of fellow competitors and the adrenaline of the Games themselves all seem to factor into the challenges of maintaining a cadence that mirrors what you have likely done in practice many times over.

“Prediction walking sounds simple – and it’s most definitely not,” added fellow competitor Sharon Ferris. The ladies and their spouses had met through ties to both the Minden (Haliburton) region as well as winter vacationing in Arizona, with Ferris and partner actually selling the Heaths on the fun of the 55+ Games.

“You get into your head when you are out there: am I going too slow? am I going too fast?,” said Ferris. Representing District 11 (Muskoka-Haliburton), she was one of the many on hand this week who acknowledged that they would make it their goal to qualify for the provincial (or national) Games first – and then move on to select the sport which offered them a decent possibility of doing so second.

“I got into it (the 55+ Games) because my husband retired before me and he got into the Games when we lived in Toronto,” said Ferris. “When I retired, I joined him at the Games.” That was some ten years ago, with the couple essentially competing in their District Games every year, most often moving on to the Ontario festivities and even having attended nationals.

Sudbury marked the fourth set of Games for avid dart thrower Carol Cairns, the Mississauga native teamed with clubmate Mary Cork in a sport that would attract 56 competitors in all – but only four from the nickel city.

With her husband already sold on the game, Cairns was welcomed to the darts community some ten years ago, playing regularly at a local Legion (the Sudbury competition was hosted at Lockerby Legion). “The first year, I did okay. The second year, I did better. The third year, I did even better – and now I am hooked,” she said.

Quite interesting was where exactly the pendulum fell when it came to equal amounts of competition and social interaction – a balancing act that seemed to vary notably from one sport to the next.

“It’s hard core during the game,” said Cairns with a smile. “It’s all about the competition. After the match, then you meet people.”

From a tourism standpoint, my highly unscientific survey of participants would suggest that somewhere around 75% of the out-of-town participants built in extended holidays into their trek to Sudbury, with many taking in local sites and restaurants.

Cairns and spouse set up roots at the Richard Lake campground and we’re not heading back south for a bit. “We like to camp, so we’ve been up here before, camping,” she said. “From here, we’re going to Timmins, then Kap and Kirkland Lake.”

“We’re all doing a little tour after were done: my wife’s mom was born here, my partner’s son went to school here,” noted avid pickleball enthusiast Christopher Doyle from Fort Erie – or Crystal Ridge, to be more precise.

Picking up the sport as the world emerged from Covid in the summer of 2021, Doyle and his wife (they played on separate teams) did not become aware of the Ontario 55+ Games until they played a 2024-2025 winter tournament in Brant. From there, it was a no-brainer to try and qualify in the Niagara District, given just how much the couple that run a martial arts studio in Mississauga / Port Credit have embraced their new sport.

“Sometimes, people start just wanting to play pickleball for recreation – but then the competitiveness comes out and you want to get better,” said Doyle.

Currently rated at 3.5 (DUPR – Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating - is an internationally accepted method of tiering the competitors), the 61 year old suggested the anscension to 4.0 involves no mystery formula.

“Like anything, you need to practice, practice, practice,” he said. “You need to do more drilling.”

For as much as space restrictions do not permit us to do a deep dive into Games results, it seemed a disservice not to do a shoutout to a four-team bocce competition that was nothing if not filled with drama.

With double-round robin play setting the stage for the playoffs, nothing went as planned.

The fourth place pairing of Jackie and Mike Piccolotto (2-7 – Huron-Perth) upset the top-seed team of Leeann and Greg Chamberlain (7-2 – St Lawrence Seaway) 6-5 while #3 (Murray MacDonald / Richard Tunstall) also knocked off #2 (Suzanne and Georges Martin).

Fittingly, the final was decided by just a single point (6-5) as MacDonald and Turnstall secured gold medals for the return voyage home to the Brant – Haldimand – Norfolk region.