Veterans prove age is no bar

A sharp-shooting Australian granny, an Indian weightlifter and stars like Navratilova are among an array of women lining up at Athens.

A sharp-shooting Australian grandmother, an Indian weightlifter and stars such as Martina Navratilova and Merlene Ottey are among an array of women lining up at the Athens Olympics to prove age is no barrier to success.

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Annette Woodward, 56, will be the oldest female competitor at the Games when she takes part in the 25 meter pistol event.

Woodward only took up shooting after being inspired by the performance of a compatriot in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

"You just fall into these things. I didn't start this aiming to be the oldest at anything," she told reporters in Athens.

"I'm hoping that my being here will inspire other women to get out there."

The radiographer from Victoria has won three Commonwealth gold medals but missed out on the 2000 Sydney Olympics, having retired in 1998 to nurse her cancer-stricken husband and poured her energy into her job after his death the following year. "I really needed to make a comeback. I didn't want to leave the sport the way I had," she told Reuters earlier this year.

Navratilova, 47, will continue her own age-defying comeback by taking part in the women's doubles for the U.S. team, becoming the oldest player ever at an Olympic tennis event.

Sprinter Ottey has run at every summer Olympics since Moscow in 1980, winning a silver with the Jamaican relay team last time around. In Athens, she will become the first female track and field athlete to take part in seven Olympics. At the age of 44, when most sprinters have long ago swapped spikes for slippers, Ottey will run both the 100 and 200 metres.

But this time she will run for Slovenia, the base of her coach and her adopted home, rather than her native Jamaica.

Then, there are less well-known women also turning in top-level performances at an advanced age for their sports. At 37, Brigitte McMahon of Switzerland is defending her Olympic title in the triathlon, where most athletes peak around their late 20s. McMahon comes to Athens having had two daughters since Sydney to add to a son born in 1997.

Cyclist Jeannie Longo of France is also in one of the most gruelling Olympic sports but still competing at the age of 45.

A gold medal-winner at Atlanta in 1996, Longo has won 13 world titles and claimed her 48th national crown in June to qualify for Athens. She will compete in both the individual time trial and the road race events. Another competitor admired for her staying power is weightlifter Kunjarani Devi. Considered the grand old lady of her sport in India at the age of 36, she will be the oldest woman weightlifter at Athens.

The assistant police commander nicknamed "big sister" by team mates competes in the 48 kg category. She has battled back from a doping ban and is rated one of India's best medal hopes.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Howden) Reuters