SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — This week a woman from Shelbyville will compete in the National Senior Olympics in Pittsburgh.
Jeweline Segroves is 72-years-young and plays basketball. She will also be given an award for being such an amazing example of staying healthy and active as you age.
She said basketball has always been a part of her life either playing it growing up, or coaching as her kids grew up.
Then she returned to the court as a player and has been attending the Senior Olympics for the last 15 years.
Her team, the Tennessee Dino's, is made up of other women 70 and up who she used to either play with or against back when they were in high school in Shelbyville.
This week they aim to win it all, but Jeweline has already won something. She missed the last Senior Olympics games because she was sick with COVID-19 and had double pneumonia. Despite doctors not believing she would even make it through the night, she survived and is back to feeling like herself again, playing the game that is her passion.
This is why she was chosen, out of more than 11,000 athletes competing this year, to be given the Humana Game Changers Award.
"I had a barrage of doctors coming in to see me every few minutes and every one of them said if I had not been as healthy as I was, that I would not have made it," said Jeweline. "I would like to think that I could be an inspiration for other seniors my age who think that they got to sit on a chair and watch TV all day, you don't."
She said her advice for people of all ages: find something you enjoy that gets you moving and stay active. She says basketball has taken care of her physically and mentally.
Go Dinos!
