Anne Abernathy

Anne Abernathy, Olympian

Anne Abernathy, Texas, earned her popular nickname, "Grandma Luge," for being the oldest woman athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics; her field, of course, is luge. Despite her age, she is a consistent competitor with frequent World Cup podium finishes, and she is repeatedly ranked in the top 20 world rankings. Anne has competed in six Winter Olympics, the latest in 2006. Before her first Olympic appearance in 1988, Abernathy was diagnosed and treated for non-Hodgkins lymphoma (cancer). Although the cancer returned several times during her sports career, the fact was kept hidden from the public through three Olympic appearances until it was revealed in a front page article of the Washington Post prior to the 1998 Nagano Olympics. In 2001, Anne suffered a serious accident during a World Cup race in Altenberg, Germany that resulted in a severe brain injury. To recover from the injury, she used an alternative medicine treatment involving controlling rockets in a video game through electrical impulses from brain waves, a therapy designed to help her retrain her brain to compensate for the damaged areas. The therapy was successful and she was able to return to competition in time to qualify for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Challenging all expectations, Anne is not only the oldest woman to compete in the Winter Games, she is the oldest female Olympian in any Olympic Games (Winter or Summer) and the first woman over the age of 50 in the Winter Olympics.