We are now inevitably facing the aging society, in which we must protect ourselves and our body itself by our own effort. One of the authors (H. Matsui) has been engaged in the study concerning the active life-planning of elderly people for these several years.
　The present study is to aim to reveal how the people participating most actively in sports activity is engaged in, the Veterans Athletic Championships, and how useful such an athletic meet is for active life-planning for elderly people.
　A questionnaire study and a physical fitness test was executed on the athletes of the 10th World Veterans Athletic Championship, Miyazaki, Japan.
　( 1 ) Questionnaire Study
　Questionnaires were sent by mail beforehand to all the athletes. Questionnaires in Japanese were used for Japanese participants, and questionnaires in English were for overseas participants. Questionnaires were collected at the reception desk of the Championship. The rate of the answer were 20.5% for overseas athletes (18.7% for male and 24.9% for female) and 42.9% for Japanese athletes (43.3% for male and 41.2% for female). One of the reason that the rate for overseas participants were lower than Japanese could relate to language of the questionnaire, considering the rate of the answer from English speaking countries were about 40%. The rate of the answers of each age group was ; 40 〜 49 years ; 43.8%, 50 〜 59 years : 28.5%, 60 〜 69 years : 12.6%, 70 +years : 4.2%.
　1 ) Attitude to the Veterans Championships
　The reasons for participation were very different between Japanese and overseas participants. Main reasons of overseas athletes were "wishing to visit Japan", "to meet athletes from all over the world", and "to challenge the limit or personal best", while "just to feel the atmosphere of the World Veterans' Championships", "as a part of the healthy life-style", "to challenge the limit or personal best", and "to know own physical fitness level" for Japanese athletes. Almost all the athletes from overseas answered that they had done special training for the Championships in addition to usual training, while 87% of Japanese athletes did not particularly.
　2 ) Concerning health status About 50% of athletes (Japanese : 48.2%, Overseas : 59.8%) answered that they thought that they were completely healthy with no disorder. The fact that 91.5% of athletes took physical examination regularly might be worthy of attention.
　Many athletes paid attention in food and meal trying "to eat without particular likes and dislikes (59.6%)", "to take dairy products such as milk, cheese, and yogurt (57.1%)", and "to take meals regularly (58.1%)". 81.9% of athletes had- a habit of drinking alcoh-olic drinks, while 88.0% had no habit of smoking.
　( 2 ) Physical Fitness Test
　279 male and 129 female athletes from 31 nations voluntarily participated in the test. Youngest and oldest age of the participants was 40 and 86 years for male and 35 and 71 years for female, respectively. Most common event for participants of the test was long distance running for both male and female, and then sprint running.
　After arriving the testing site, ECG at rest was recorded, and then blood pressure, height, body weight, trunk flexibility, and grip strength was measured. lsokinetic knee extension and flexion strength was measured under the constant speed of 60 degrees/second using Cybex machine. Endurance ability was evaluated by PWC 75% HR. and Vo₂max estimated by incremental bicycle ergometer work (Combi inc.).
Flexibility showed wide personal variability and no special relationship with age. The decrease of grip strength with increasing age was more obvious in male athletes. Both leg strength and PWC 75% HRmax was lower in aged group than younger group, but these values of the athletes were much higher than those for non-athletes.

DESCENTE SPORTS SCIENCE Vol.15/THE DESCENTE AND ISHIMOTO MEMORIAL FOUNDATION FOR THE PROMOTION SPORTS SCIENCE