Basketball is not just a sport for the young. It can also be understood through the lens of longevity and healthy life expectancy, as a concrete example of active ageing in which physical performance, cardiovascular health and neuromotor abilities are preserved and interwoven over time.
In Italy, the Golden Players movement has been growing year on year, bringing together more than 500 players — women and men ranging from their 40s to their 70s — from across the country, united by their passion for basketball and their determination to keep competing long after their traditional playing careers have ended.
"It is a message for us athletes of a certain age: at this stage of life it becomes a push towards the future, an incentive to commit, to stay in shape and to adopt a healthy, steady lifestyle," said Virgilio Marino, president of Golden Players Italia.
The movement goes well beyond amateur sport.
Golden Players take part in increasingly structured national and international competitions, helping to redefine the concept of biological age in sport and demonstrating how performance can be sustained well into later life through training, body composition and consistent physical activity.
