2009 Athletes of The Year
Written by San Diego Senior Olympics Friday, 19 February 2010 19:01
Check out individual achievements and pictures by hitting the Read More button below.
2009 Men's Team Of The Year
A Few Good Men (Softball)
Manager: Tim Dimasi
2009 Women's Team Of The Year
Goal Diggers (Soccer)
Manager: Diane Lieberman
Male Athlete: Bob Best.
Bob Best Master Swimmer, San Diego Swim Masters
Swimming Experience:
Redlands High School 1948-1950
Fullerton Jr. College 1950-1951
Iowa State College 1951-1955
U.S. Masters Swimming 1987-present
Recent Accomplishments
May 2009 - USMS Short Course Yards Championship, Clovis, CA
1st place- 100 breast, 100 IM, 200 IM
2nd place 50 breast, 50 freestyle
3rd place 200 breast
August 2009 – Summer National Sr. Games, Stanford U., CA
1st place 50 & 100 breast, 100 & 200 IM
2nd place 50 free
Current Record holder 100 IM
August 2009 – USMS Long Course Championship, Indianapolis, IN
1st place 50 breast
2nd place 100 free, 100 breast
3rd place 50 fly
Female Athlete: Rita Hanscom.
Rita Hanscom Track and Field Champion
Having no track and field experience in high school or college, Rita read an article about the senior games in the San Diego Union Tribune newspaper and decided her time had finally come. She began in 2001 at age 47 to learn the pole vault and at age 49 entered her first competition in the 100m dash, coming in third. Rita’s all-around athleticism and enthusiasm for track and field expanded her interests to include all events of the sprints, jumps and throws.
In August of this year, Rita set an age-group world record in the heptathlon[1][1] at the world masters track and field championships in Finland with 6,382 points, nearly 2,000 more points than the second place finisher. She also won five gold medals in the pole vault, long jump, 80m hurdles, 300m hurdles, and the heptathlon. She was named Athlete of the Week by USA Track and Field on August 12, 2009.
Two weeks later at the Masters National Multi-event Championships in Seattle she set an American Record in the decathlon[2][2] with 8,899 points. This record should be recognized as a world record when the WMA officially recognizes the decathlon as a women’s event.
The World Masters Association selected Rita as Best Female Masters Athlete in the world for 2009, as only the third American to win this honor, and she was invited to Monte Carlo to attend the IAAF Gala November 22 to receive her award from Prince Albert of Monaco and Sir Sebastian Coe.
At the end of 2009, Rita was ranked number 1 in the world in the long jump, 80m and 300m hurdles, heptathlon, and decathlon.
She is employed full-time as a deputy attorney general for the State of California where she prosecutes Medi-Cal fraud. She is married to Superior Court Judge Richard Hanscom and they have two grown children, a daughter in law school and a son who is a television writer in Hollywood.
