Down but not out: John Jacob

The 50plus Oregon Senior Games series returns, featuring some of the 50+ phenoms who’ll be competing in the Games in Corvallis Aug 13-19.

Watch this space now through game time to meet fun, fascinating people who make the Games an experience to remember — for competitors, volunteers, and spectators alike!

This week, meet track and field titan, John Jacob.

Down But Not Out

   Sometimes life whacks us upside the head, as lifelong athlete John Jacob knows well. “In 2016, I experienced five surgeries in six months due to kidney/bladder stones that resulted in complications, pain and being unable to exercise for eight months.” A blood clot also made him fearful of a cut or a fall.

   What to do? For John, it was to gradually regain his fitness.

   “This decision helped me find energy and motivation,” he says. He climbed lofty mountains and renewed his running regimen. The demanding work paid off when, at the 2021 Oregon Senior Games, he won first place in the 1500m run.

Way to go Mr. Jacob!

• BY RANDAL C. HILL