As the women’s World Cup continues in France, there’s another group of tough athletes taking the field in the San Diego area. Many are age 70 and older. Don’t even think about telling them to sit.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

The U.S. women will play England in the semi-final round of the World Cup on Tuesday. And so we thought we’d bring you the story of some other tough and inspirational female soccer players. Gloria Hillard reports from San Diego, Calif., at the matchup between the blues and the whites.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: OK, ladies (clapping). Blues over there. Whites over here.

GLORIA HILLARD, BYLINE: In a purple headscarf and wearing for the blue team, Tina Zucker is getting in some last-minute dribbling practice.

TINA ZUCKER: Well, the thing about playing soccer and being 70 is I don’t feel 70.

HILLARD: Although she admits when she’s out and about and wearing her soccer uniform, people will often ask…

ZUCKER: Do you play soccer or do you coach soccer or do you go to see your grandchildren? I’m like, I play. And that’s the thing that all of us go through.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Come on, Ladies. Keep coming. Keep coming. Oh, my God.

HILLARD: Most of these women play for the Prime of Life Women’s Soccer League in San Diego. They are not only playing a game they love. They are sharing the dreams of a younger generation, something they couldn’t have imagined as young girls – a U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team. Seventy-two-year-old Joan Captain says in the 1950s and ’60s and before Title IX, girls were often discouraged from playing sports.

JOAN CAPTAIN: When I grew up, you had to be a, quote, quote, “a lady.”

HILLARD: She’s changing out her jersey so there will be an equal number of good players on each team and doing pushups.

CAPTAIN: I usually play forward or I usually play defense. I had people say, oh, that’s so dangerous, you know, you should take it easy. And I say, well, you see that couch over there? The couch will kill you (laughter).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Nice job, Trish, even if you are on the other team.

HILLARD: Brandi Mitchell of San Diego Soccer Women says these women are a demographic that should be recognized.

BRANDI MITCHELL: They’ve gone against, culturally, what we expect of women in those age groups not only as athletes but specifically with a sport that you just don’t see being offered to women of older ages in general.

HILLARD: At 79, Danielle Madsen has been playing soccer for 40 years – maybe not as hard and tough as two decades ago.

DANIELLE MADSEN: On our two teams, they’re very nice. And they don’t kill you (laughter). So playing against some of the other teams – yeah, you can get hurt.

HILLARD: She’s referring to those young players in their 50s. There’s only one exception in senior women’s soccer – no slide tackling. And that’s just fine with Karen Tenney. She says she doesn’t notice how many times she hits the grass during the game. She just counts her bruises in the morning.

KAREN TENNEY: I’ve broken my wrist and my thumb, both from friendly fire. I still played with it. I put a cast on, I put bubble wrap on it so I could still play.

HILLARD: From the sidelines, cheering the women on are a few retired former team members along with Lucy, a golden retriever and mascot for both teams. Patty Storm says at this time in their life, the game is more about camaraderie than competition.

PATTY STORM: It’s just pulling together and supporting each other and getting some wonderful exercise.

HILLARD: The players do admit when it’s tournament time, it’s game on. In this game, well, there was some debate as to whether the score was 1-0 or tied. Tina Zucker just shrugs.

ZUCKER: Honestly, I have no idea. I just know that I ran after the ball. Sometimes, I got it. Sometimes, I didn’t. And that’s the name of the game.

HILLARD: A game she plays three times a week.

For NPR News, I’m Gloria Hillard.

(SOUNDBITE OF SOLIMINE AND BURKI’S “WHEN YOU’RE SMILING”)

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Boston’s Suffolk Downs racetrack, once a hugely popular venue for a nationally beloved sport, is marking the end of an era as it hosts its last live horse race ever.

SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:

It’s the end of an era for East Boston’s historic Suffolk Downs racetrack. Live horse racing, which began there in 1935, will end after one final race day tomorrow. Tori Bedford from member station WGBH brings us this from the track.

(SOUNDBITE OF BUGLE HORN)

TORI BEDFORD, BYLINE: It’s the second race of the day and hometown jockey Tammi Piermarini is soaring through the muddy track on Atta Kid, a horse that, unlike her, is just starting his career.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Come on, Tammi.

BEDFORD: Piermarini and Atta Kid fly through the finish line to win the race.

TAMMI PIERMARINI: You can walk right in the girl’s room. Just shut the door behind you.

BEDFORD: Piermarini is small and sturdy. She hops off her horse and meets me in the locker room where we talk while she wipes mud from the track off of her face.

PIERMARINI: 1985, I rode my first horse here.

BEDFORD: Piermarini is a local kid. She grew up in Newburyport and started riding at 3 years old. She came to Suffolk Downs at the age of 18 and went on to be the third leading female jockey in the country. It’s also where she rode her parents’ first racehorse.

PIERMARINI: That was probably one of the most exciting moments of my life to have them come into the winner’s circle and it’s their horse and their colors I’m wearing. I can’t express or explain how I felt.

BEDFORD: Jockeys like Piermarini have hitched their careers to a sport with waning interest around the country as casinos and online gambling grow in popularity in live horse racing spots, like Suffolk Downs, get transformed into apartments and retail buildings. With the retirement of the tracks, Piermarini says more jockeys and horses are retiring, too.

PIERMARINI: As long as people will ride me, I’m going to continue. But if I’m forced to retire because of no business – and that’s a sad way to go. It’s not that I want to retire. I’m being forced to retire.

BEDFORD: Just outside, a lot of longtime fans here say they aren’t quite ready to say goodbye. Jimmy Haephy grew up in nearby Revere and has been coming to the track for 40 years.

JIMMY HAEPHY: A lot of memories here, you know? A lot of good ones. I know every inch of this place. It’s like walking in my front door walking in here. And I don’t understand why they were closing it. Some reason they want to close, make a shopping mall. I don’t know.

BEDFORD: As a kid nearly 70 years ago, Conrad Smith, or Smitty, was obsessed with two things – baseball and horse racing, coming every weekend with his parents.

CONRAD SMITH: I’ve been doing this all my life, and I’m still coming here. I don’t know what’s going to happen after next year.

BEDFORD: Suffolk Downs used to bring in tens of thousands of spectators with races every day. Now CEO Chip Tuttle says the entire sport is struggling.

CHIP TUTTLE: We fought really hard for a long time to try to preserve racing here at the property, and it didn’t work out, so now it’s on to what’s next.

BEDFORD: Suffolk Downs has closed before and reopened, but Tuttle says this time it’s for real.

TUTTLE: There have been times in the past where we thought racing was going to end, it was over. And we were able to find ways to continue. But I can’t see a way for us to continue racing here.

TD THORNTON: We’ve got Rocket Road in those bright orange silks. He’s covered up on the…

BEDFORD: TD Thornton sits up on the roof in an announcer’s booth speaking into a decades-old microphone to let the crowd know which horses are racing next and pressing a bugle horn to bring those horses out onto the track. He says he doesn’t want the final race to feel like a funeral.

THORNTON: And we’ve had a pretty damn good run here for 84 years so that’s how I’m going to try and focus it and end it on a high note. This is reality, and my role in it is to give the track a respectful sendoff.

BEDFORD: What’s next for you?

THORNTON: Pressing his bugle right here and getting the horse out onto the track.

(SOUNDBITE OF BUGLE HORN)

THORNTON: Horses are heading out for today’s fourth race with the Exacta, Trifecta and Superfecta betting.

BEDFORD: For NPR News, I’m Tori Bedford in Boston.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

The Women’s World Cup is underway, while top tennis players are about to meet at Wimbledon.

SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:

And now it’s time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MCCAMMON: The Women’s World Cup is going on in France during one of Europe’s worst heat waves. Bringing in the heat here is NPR’s Tom Goldman. Good morning, Tom.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Sarah, welcome to the sports segment.

MCCAMMON: Thank you so much. So the U.S. women’s soccer team as we know defeated France 2-1. It was an evening game. They played in that 85 degree heat. What were the highlights for you?

GOLDMAN: Well, now that you mentioned the heat, hydration, definitely a highlight, but other than that, defense – Megan Rapinoe. The defense was a question mark for the U.S. going into the World Cup, but it was stellar yesterday, especially in the second half after France scored and really started to bring the pressure. The U.S. kept repelling attack after attack. But the big story, of course, Megan Rapinoe. She played a beautiful game. She was relentless on the left wing and, of course, she scored both U.S. goals. She’s now scored all the American goals in the last two victories. She has five total. But beyond that, she really has become a phenomenon at this World Cup, in case you haven’t heard – the purple hair, the outspoken political views. She’s a supporter of NFL player Colin Kaepernick and his protests during the national anthem. She’s protested herself. She’s in a war of words with President Trump. So Rapinoe is becoming this polarizing character, loved and hated. But I tell you, Sarah, she’s loving her moment. She and her teammates aren’t shrinking from being the favorites. In fact, they seem to be thriving on the pressure.

MCCAMMON: And a lot of people are loving her. They face England next. England defeated Norway 3-0. So what do you think will happen in the semifinals?

GOLDMAN: The U.S. will beat England, and then the U.S. will beat whoever they play in the final. Sarah, I’m usually a rotten prognosticator – not this time. They’re just really good. Next question, please.

MCCAMMON: All right, we’re going to hold you to that.

GOLDMAN: OK.

MCCAMMON: Two former star U.S. soccer players, Brandi Chastain and Michelle Akers, announced this week, Tom, that they will participate in a Boston University brain study. I want you to talk a little bit about that and why it matters.

GOLDMAN: Well, Akers and Chastain are two of the stars of that great 1999 World Cup-winning U.S. team, and they say they’ve dealt with different symptoms like memory loss and headaches. And they wonder if a lifetime of heading the ball and collisions have put them and other female soccer players at risk of CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. That’s the degenerative brain disease most associated with football. Now, it matters because, in sports, traumatic brain injury mostly has been talked about as a problem for male athletes because of football and other collision sports that men play. But in fact soccer, especially at the younger levels, has been particularly brutal to the heads of women and girls. A 2017 study by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons found girls soccer number one when it comes to concussions as a percentage of total injuries. Studies like that have led some to call for reducing or even eliminating heading the ball for younger players.

MCCAMMON: And moving on to another big tournament starting Monday, this one in the U.K., we are talking, of course, about Wimbledon. On the women’s side, as per usual, it’s anybody’s championship. In the last 10 Grand Slam tournaments, there’ve been nine different female champions. For the men, No. 1 ranked Novak Djokovic will be trying to defend his title. But this year, he’s got some real challengers. What do you think, Tom? Can he do it again?

GOLDMAN: Oh, sure he can. Before losing in the semifinals of the French Open earlier this month, he’d won the three previous Grand Slam tournaments. He’s a worthy No. 1 seed, but right behind him, of course, are the rest of the big three of men’s tennis, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Those three combined have won 14 of the last 16 Wimbledon’s men’s titles, led by Federer with eight. It’s a good bet one of them will keep it going by the end of the Wimbledon fortnight. They’re all playing great.

MCCAMMON: And quickly, we also have to mention that one player has made an unlikely comeback, the U.K.’s own Andy Murray. He had an emotional departure last year followed by hip surgery. Now he’s back and he seems pretty happy, right?

GOLDMAN: The dower Scotsman has been smiling and been cheery in recent weeks, you know, because he’s not hurting. He’s winning doubles at least. A few years back, Murray was a frequent challenger to the big three. Then earlier this year, he thought he was going to have to quit tennis. But after surgery, a new partial metal hip, he’s been winning at doubles, and U.K. fans at Wimbledon are going to be cheering him on like crazy to win a doubles title.

MCCAMMON: That’s NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman. Tom, thanks so much.

GOLDMAN: You’re welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE ROOFTOPS’ “A LAYER FITS”)

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

The U.S. has advanced to the semifinals of the Women’s World Cup after a thrilling 2-1 victory over host country France. It was the most anticipated game of the tournament so far.

SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:

The U.S. is headed to the semifinals for the Women’s World Cup next week. That’s after Megan Rapinoe stole the show in the quarterfinal, scoring the two goals that powered the U.S. to yesterday’s win over France. That game took place in front of an emotionally charged crowd in a sold-out stadium in Paris. NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley was there.

(CHEERING)

ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Megan Rapinoe set the tone of the game early, scoring a goal within the fifth minute. This pressured the French team to try to equalize throughout the first half. Though they had possession of the ball 60% of the time and took many shots, France was unable to pierce through the stifling U.S. defense. Rapinoe scored again in the second half, making it 2-0 and demoralizing an already desperate French team.

(CHEERING)

BEARDSLEY: Late in the second half, France finally scored its only goal, a header by Wendie Renard off a free kick.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) Allez les Bleus.

BEARDSLEY: The stadium was bursting in red, white and blue, the colors of both countries’ flags. And the crowd was electric, erupting in alternating chants of Allez les Bleus and U-S-A, though the U-S-A chants attracted some boos from the majority-French fans.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) U-S-A, U-S-A.

(BOOING)

BEARDSLEY: Parisian Aurelien Jeanpetit says whatever the score, this is a first for women’s soccer in France.

AURELIEN JEANPETIT: It’s the first time I witnessed that. It’s really incredible. The atmosphere is really something else, especially for – concerning women’s soccer because men’s soccer is the thing in our country. But, like, women’s soccer has never been like this. So it’s really – it makes me happy for every girl who plays football and who can watch that on TV.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Singing in French).

BEARDSLEY: French fans sang their national anthem and believed up until the very end. But Les Bleus couldn’t take control from the U.S. team long enough to score. Cecile Creze admits France was outplayed.

CECILE CREZE: Well, I’m disappointed, of course, but it was logic because the American players were better. When they were in front of the goal, they scored. And the French team, they had the ball, but they didn’t manage to score, so disappointed because I think they could have done better.

BEARDSLEY: Rapinoe was again named player of the match, but lately, she’s just as known for what she says off the field. Her comments about the White House have galvanized anti-Trump Americans and won her a following in France.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Everybody – Megan, Megan, Megan.

BEARDSLEY: Shana Summers and her friends are wearing T-shirts they had specially made for the game. Paraphrasing Rapinoe’s expletive-laced comment that if the U.S. wins the World Cup, she’s not going to the White House. The women just arrived from San Francisco.

SHANA SUMMERS: We got this done yesterday and flew in this morning to make it to the game tonight with these shirts to show support for Megan Rapinoe because everything that’s happening in the U.S. and her speaking out is the biggest thing ever. And we need to be there in support for her.

BEARDSLEY: Megan Rapinoe, the U.S. team and all their supporters will be in Lyon Tuesday for the semifinal game against England. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.