to take up a competitive sport at age 45?

[ChamomileLawn]

clearly I’m a little bit old to be good at gymnastics or hurdles, I don’t want to spend hours trundling up and down a pool.
i’ve never got the hang of team games like football or hockey. I skived PE from age 13 onwards. I have dabbled in a little slow running previously until knackered tendons put paid to that.

I am now 45, quite fat and very unfit but I do feel I need an actual go at a commonwealth/Olympic medal.

so what sport can I take up? Archery? Bowls?

Lurking
I fancy this

How on earth does walking tennis work? Surely if you hit a tennis ball it goes at whatever speed it’s going to go at. It doesn’t care if you’re walking.

How about badminton?

I guess you get less momentum behind it if you're walking so it won't be as strong a hit perhaps

I took up cycling in my 40s, this year i won a gold medal in a cycling event in France.

Well, thats a bit of a stretch - it was a Gold medal time... but it was a still a Gold Medal ;)

Plenty of women do well in Time trials and win medals far older than you, they have national age related champions.

CrossFit!
Competitive for all ages, there are Masters categories so you can compete against people of a similar age and there are tonnes of local and international comps to participate in.

Shooting.
Indoor rowing.
Crossfit but only if you can jump onto a box.

Does it require using different kit which changes the bounce and speed somehow? Like with badminton there's slow, medium and fast shuttlecocks.

My knees aren't the best but I still manage to play. If your knees are really bad then obviously a high impact sport like tennis or running isn't going to work.

Walking tennis? Did you make that up?

Have you got a garage and a dartboard and several hours a day to spend throwing arrows repetitively at said dartboard until you can do it in your sleep? Because age and fitness wouldn't appear to be a major barrier to international excellence in that arena. I guess you'd need the ability to multiply by two and three, and to do quick mental subtraction, but you could practise that by asking friends to ambush you, shouting, '501 minus double seventeen and double tops!' in the supermarket.

Are you watching the bowls, OP? You've got another 30 years to get yourself up to Commonwealth medal standard if these two teams are anything to go by!

(Also, is it bad that I now look at lawn bowls as 'land curling'?)

I found a really good series on the guardian called a new start after 60. This one brought this thread to mind. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/feb/07/ice-skating-a-new-start-after-60?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other