{"id":326285,"date":"2026-07-01T18:41:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T18:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/326285\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T18:41:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T18:41:19","slug":"more-than-1400-veterans-compete-in-tampa-at-national-veterans-golden-age-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/326285\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 1,400 veterans compete in Tampa at National Veterans Golden Age Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 More than 1,400 veterans from across the country are in Tampa this week for the 40th National Veterans Golden Age Games<\/a>, bringing together athletes aged 55 and older to compete in 21 sports ranging from basketball to table tennis.<\/p>\n

The games promote health, wellness and adaptation \u2014 and for many competitors, they carry a meaning far deeper than winning.<\/p>\n

Matthew Reed, a veteran who served in the Army for 34 years, is among those competing. Reed lost his vision after blast exposure during his service.<\/p>\n

“When I returned from Afghanistan in 2007, about two years later, I noticed my left eye was going a little fuzzy. By 2011, it had gone legally blind. Then in 2018, the right eye caught up,” Reed said.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Reed stepped onto the competition floor for his first-ever deadlift attempt \u2014 a milestone in a year that also marks the first time powerlifting has been included in the games’ four-decade history.<\/p>\n

“I always been a bench presser, but as far as deadlifting, not so much,” Reed said.<\/p>\n

For Reed, the games have become about more than competition.<\/p>\n

“It’s given us older-time veterans, get off our seats, and our doing things like power-lifting and all the other sports you see around this arena,” Reed said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve met people from all around the country in the last two years. It’s been amazing. It gives us something to look forward to every year,” Reed said.<\/p>\n

Christina Lafex, an official with the games, said the event creates an environment where veterans with varying physical abilities can compete on equal footing.<\/p>\n

“Even if there is a level of physical disability, it’s an even playing field. They compete against people with similar abilities,” Lafex said.<\/p>\n

Lafex said the camaraderie among competitors is a hallmark of the event.<\/p>\n

“A lot of them have competed against each other for many years. There’s a wonderful level of trash-talking that takes place. It adds a nice little element,” Lafex said.<\/p>\n

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n

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Friends remember Hillsborough woman stabbed to death in Palm River<\/p>\n

Deputies say Amanda Roark, 37, was stabbed to death by her boyfriend.<\/p>\n

Friends remember Hillsborough County woman stabbed to death in Palm River<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 More than 1,400 veterans from across the country are in Tampa this week for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[77708,107720,107721,134883,135,5910,9658,9659,137,136,3393,208,9661],"class_list":["post-326285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-golden-age-games","tag-kevin-lewis","tag-kyle-burger","tag-powerlifting","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-tampa-bay-28-sports","tag-tampa-bay-sports","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-veterans","tag-wfts","tag-wfts-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}