52 year old Anne Abernathy or Grandma Luge, as she is better known, has pulled out of the Olympics because of a wrist injury.

Abernathy has a lot to be proud about. Reports CNN:

She has also built up a cult following of luge fans around the world, having beaten cancer and bounced back from a string of injuries including 12 operations on her knee.

She was appearing at her sixth Olympics in Torino after a career that began in Calgary in 1988 and carried the flag for her country in Friday’s opening ceremony. She became the oldest female Winter Olympian when she competed aged 48 in Utah four years ago. The previous title-holder was Canada’s Edwina Chamier, an Alpine skier who took to the slopes of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936. But Abernathy was not the oldest competitor at the Games — that distinction goes to 54-year-old U.S. curler Scott Baird.

As Grandma Luge says, she is an inspiration to a lot of women, specially to those above 50:

It’s a big deal for a lot of women that someone over 50 is going out there and doing it.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 13th, 2006 at 4:20 pm and is filed under Winter Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.