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Quick question. When you picture the athletes who get chosen to represent the United States, wear the flag, and fly across the country to face off against another nation, what do you see?
Probably not a 70-year-old woman on her couch, gripping a game controller, muttering “come on” at a screen full of little cars.
But that is exactly who is heading to Los Angeles this December.
Wait, This Is a Real National Team?
It is. A group of older adults from central Ohio has been picked to play for Team USA at the 2026 Global Esports Games, running December 1–7 in Los Angeles as part of the country’s 250th birthday celebration. Their first opponent: Senior Team Belgium.
Their sport is a video game called Rocket League. If you have never seen it, the simplest description is soccer, except the players are rocket-powered cars that fly around a giant arena and smack a huge ball into the net. It is fast, it is a little ridiculous, and it is genuinely hard to be good at.
These folks are good at it.
The final roster of six to ten players gets announced in August, which means right now there are grandparents in Ohio training for a spot on a national team. Let that sink in for a second.
How a Grandmother Ends Up on Team USA
The players all come out of a program called LevelUpLand, run by the nonprofit Health-e-Gamer Foundation. The whole idea is to use gaming to fight the things that quietly wear on people as they get older: loneliness, boredom, the feeling that the world has moved on to gadgets nobody explained to you.
More than 2,500 older adults have come through it so far.
And it is not just “here’s a controller, good luck.” Alongside the gaming, participants get coaching on physical fitness, nutrition, emotional health, and teamwork. T
here are also sessions on the stuff that actually keeps seniors safe online, like spotting scams and avoiding fraud.
It turns out the same program that teaches you to flick a rocket-car into a goal also teaches you not to wire money to a stranger claiming to be your grandson.
The Best Part Is What It Does to Their Brains
Here is where it stops being a cute story and starts being a good one.
Pamela Shields has been with LevelUpLand since the very beginning. She will happily tell you she was skeptical at first. Video games? At her age? For what?
She stuck around anyway. She is still here. That says more than any pitch could.
Then there is another player, Minchillo, who was asked point-blank whether the gaming actually sharpens the mind. The answer came back fast:
“A thousand percent.”
Reacting to a fast-moving game, reading the field, making split-second calls with a controller in your hands, that constant mental workout, in his words, “is great for my brain.”
He is not wrong, either. This is a person describing, in plain terms, the kind of quick-thinking, use-it-or-lose-it exercise that doctors keep telling all of us to get more of. He just happens to be getting his by scoring goals with a flying car.
Why This One Sticks With Me
We have all heard the tired line. Older folks and technology don’t mix. Seniors just want the world to slow down. Video games are for kids in dark bedrooms.
This blows a hole right through all of it.
These are people who could have easily decided the whole thing wasn’t for them. Pamela almost did.
Instead they showed up, kept showing up, got good, and now they are packing bags for Los Angeles to represent their country against Belgium.
Nobody handed them this. They practiced their way into it.
And the thing they got out of it isn’t just a trip or a jersey. It is sharper thinking, new friends, a reason to get up and log on, and a room full of people who understand exactly what it feels like to lose a close match and immediately want a rematch.
That is not a story about old people learning to use technology.
That is a story about people who found something they love, got quietly great at it, and refused to believe they were too old to compete.
Belgium has no idea what’s coming.
