Calvert Keeps Right on Medaling

Neither Age Nor Injury Can Deter Local Badminton Champion from Competition

Many who know her wonder how she does it. Perhaps she drinks from the fountain of youth. Or maybe, for her, age is a question of mind over matter’she doesn’t mind so it doesn’t matter. Whatever the reason, Lee Calvert seems to be getting better with age. One of Pacific Palisades’ most decorated athletes, the 82-year-old has made the Palisadian-Post’s athletes of the year list five times and has won hundreds of medals in badminton since she began competing when she was in her 50s. The shiniest additions to her ever-growing collection were brought home two weeks ago from the Canadian Masters Meet at the Boulevard Badminton Club in Toronto, where Calvert took golds in the 75+ and 80+ singles divisions and also collected a pair of silver medals in doubles. Calvert was among 300 athletes from all over the world, including Great Britain, Japan Pakistan and Peru, to compete at the event. She continues to win in spite of having had rotator cuff surgery, a hip replacement and knee injuries. The trickiest part may be getting her newly-won hardware through the metal detectors at the airport. “If I could die on the court while I’m winning, that would be the way to go,” Calvert says. Calvert learned to play her sport while attending Santa Monica High and she continued playing it for a short time in college. Once she was married, there wasn’t time for badminton. When her son was 5, she took a badminton course at her alma mater but never competed. Calvert’s second husband Larry Calvert was a world-class badminton champion. At one of his tournaments, Calvert remembers watching and telling him that she thought she should play herself. “Go for it!” was his response and, with that, she entered the world of competitive badminton. “I got into shape,” she remembers. “And then I was hooked.” Although she raised five children, so far none have followed Calvert into badminton. Daughter Nancy, who graduated from Palisades High, taught herself flamingo dancing. She now teaches and performs the dance, sometimes traveling to Argentina, and has urged her mother to try it. Mom isn’t sure she wants to. One of the aspects of badminton that Calvert enjoys most is the competition. Although her stepson Kim plays tennis and volleyball, the only other person in the family competing right now is Calvert’s granddaughter Catherine, who is on the UCLA soccer team. “I don’t miss a game,” Calvert says. “Unless I have a tournament myself.” When she’s not competing, Calvert works for Paramount Studios in international dialogue continuity. “I had to learn it on my own and now they have film schools to teach it,” she says. Calvert started going in once a week for her assignments but preferred to work from home because so many people on the set smoked. Her first show was ‘I Love Lucy.’ “I got to watch Lucille Ball on the set,” Calvert recalls. Her resume includes many famous television shows, including all of the original Star Trek and Mission Impossible scripts. She also worked on several films, including one starring Joan Crawford. One reason Calvert likes free-lancing is so she can work at night and still play badminton during the day. The next tournament she plans to play is the international combined age tournament in September, which she has won twice with Imre Bereknyei in the 120 age group. Though their combined age places them in the 130 group, they have chosen to “play down” to try and win the division three times in a row. “I want to keep physically fit and keep the enthusiasm,” says Calvert, who works out at the Manhattan Beach Badminton Club four times a week. “I find it harder to compete after 78. I have to fight the loss of hand-eye coordination, sight and hearing loss.” Calvert also cross-trains at the Palisades-Malibu YMCA in a Fitness Forever course that includes weights, yoga and Pilates. She also does countless push-ups. “I started with three and have worked my way up to 15 or 20,” she says. “I’ve been working on these since I’ve been in my 70s. That’s the advantage I have over these other players is the fitness thing.”