People are still classified as ‘older’ or even ‘elderly’ as early as 65, even though they are now expected to keep working until they are 67
A couple of weeks ago, just before my 70th birthday, I completed the Mooloolaba standard distance triathlon (1500m swim, 40km cycle, 10km run). There was nothing exceptional about my performance, placing 1,509 out of 1,730 overall and 14th out of 18 in my 65-69 age category.
But not that long ago, it would have been exceptional. Until about 1980, competitive sport for those over 70 was restricted largely to golf and lawn bowls. Until the 1990s, there wasn’t even a category for 70-year-olds in most competitive triathlons. The small number of competitors over 65 were lumped into a single category. The first 70-year-olds recorded as completing the demanding Kona Ironman event in Hawaii (3.8km swim, 180km ride, 42.2km run), to which I still aspire, were Hiromu Inada (male) and Ethel Autorino (female) in the year 2000.
John Quiggin is a professor at the University of Queensland’s School of Economics