Originally Posted by
Gerryattrick
Can a person in their 80s who is fitter/faster/stronger than most of their peers and still works at it be considered as much of an athlete as someone in their 20s.
I would hope so.
Of course! We categorize athletes by gender too, don't we? Why not age?
Regarding the role of competition: IMHO, a person who can run a 4 minute mile is an athlete whether they do it competitively or not. In that paradigm, there are competitive and non-competitive athletes, but both are athletes.
I actually sat down some time ago to try to come up with a framework for deciding what qualifies as a "sport." As Mark Twain would have said: "It was the flattest failure there ever was."