Lafayette’s Charlie Richard battled through injuries to earn four medals at the recent 2011 National Senior Olympic Games held at Humble High School near Houston.

Competing in the 75-79 age group, Richard won a gold medal in the triple jump, a silver medal in the long jump, a bronze in the javelin and also played on a silver medal-winning softball team.

Richard’s winning leap in the triple jump was 27-9.5. In the long jump, his 12-1 effort was bested only by the winner’s 12-10. His third-place javelin throw traveled 110-8.

"I fouled three times in the triple jump, and three times in the long jump, and I’m not a fouler," Richard said. "My knee was swollen, and my left hip has bothered me for the last two or three months. That made it tough with all that running and jumping."

Richard said he also had two or three sector fouls in the discus, where he was 7th with a throw of 81-2. He placed 7th in the hammer throw at 74-7.75 and was 9th in the shot put with a top heave of 28-7.75.

The Games schedule prevented Richard from also competing in the 100 and 200-meter dashes.

In softball competition, Richard joined the Southwest Stars of Plano, Texas, for the opportunity to play and was part of a squad that earned a silver medal with an 8-4 overall record (4-2 in pool play, 4-2 in bracket play).

"We played four games on the last day," Richard said. "I don’t know who decided we needed to wrap it up in one day, but that was a lot of games back-to-back."

Athletic Network Footnote: Click here for the Athletic Network Profile of Charlie Richard. 

Click here for photo of Charlie with some of the 40s & 50s team members at tthe 2010 Track & Field Reunion.

Click here for the photo gallery of 1955 Track & Field and see Charlie soar at McNaspy Stadium.