(KCPW News) Salt Lake City residents are getting a first look at a PBS documentary that airs next year. Age of Champions, a film about the National Senior Olympics, will preview at the Salt Lake City Main Library on Wednesday with appearances by a local senior athlete as well as the 28-year-old filmmaker Keith Ochwat. Ochwat says the documentary follows several athletes as they train, compete and return home.
“We found a handful of athletes that we wanted to feature in our film,” Ochwat said. “We ended up choosing a 100 year old tennis player, an 87 year old pole vaulter, a team of grandmother basketball players and two swimmers in their late eighties who are brothers, one of whom is battling cancer.”
Ochwat says making the film was eye-opening and he hopes others can take away knowing that amazing things are possible at any age.
“I hope that when people watch Age of Champions they take away a bit of what I got from making the film which is, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover,” Ochwat said. “Roger, the 100 year old tennis player, sort of encapsulates the message of our film by saying that at 100 his backhand is getting better.”
Salt Lake City was chosen as one of 20 cities across the country to preview the film. Door’s open at 5:30; the documentary begins at 6.
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