Orlando Health Watson Clinic Lakeland Highlands Hospital Teams Up With Polk Senior Games

LAKELAND (Feb. 20, 2026) –– The starter pistol is set to sound on Saturday morning for the 33rd annual Polk Senior Games, sponsored by Orlando Health Watson Clinic Lakeland Highlands Hospital, with residents 50-years-old and up participating in these recreational games and sporting events.

The opening ceremonies are taking place at All Saints Academy in Winter Haven beginning at 8:45 a.m., but competitions will be held at various locations throughout Polk County through March 14. Saturday morning’s events at All Saints Academy include track competitions, while singles shuffleboard matches will be held at Lake Parker Park and chess matches will be held at the Estates at Carpenters in the afternoon.

“Polk Senior Games is a great way to have fun and stay young,” said Carlos Carrasco, president of Orlando Health Watson Clinic Lakeland Highlands Hospital. “Seniors compete in more than three dozen events –– everything from swimming, tennis and track. For the more subtle athletes, games like bridge, chess, cribbage and euchre are also on the schedule.”

One star to spot on the track this year is Lakeland’s Janet Lamoureux, 61. In December, The Florida Senior Games named Lamoureux the Female Athlete of the Year. 

“I feel accomplished when I run,” Lamoureux said. “It is healthy –– for a while, you have more energy. Then it also gets you involved in meeting other people. You meet phenomenal people and they keep you accountable.”

Lamoureux ran in high school and took up the sport again in her 50s when her daughter’s volunteer track coach at Bartow High School, Frank Gerber, encouraged her to enter the senior games.

“I said, ‘Excuse me. I’m not old enough.’ And he said, ‘It’s the year you turn 50,’” Lamoureux said. She also credits her Canadian friend, Georgie Gillis, for convincing her to run more than three or four weeks a year as she prepared for the games. “And then it just turned into a fantastic hobby.”

According to the Florida Senior Games website, Lamoureaux won multiple medals at the Florida Senior Games in Track and Field, Power Walk and Road Race events in the 60-64 age group at the 2024 Florida Senior Games and the 2025 National Senior Games. She is a Florida Senior Game record holder in three Power Walk events and set a Power Walk record at the 2025 National Senior Games.

In December at the Florida Senior Games, she won a gold medal in the 5K Road Race in the 60-64 age group, with a time of 23:25, and a silver medal in the 1500 Meter Power Walk 60-64 age group, with a time of 8:37.74.

Lamoureux has been competing in the Florida Senior Games since 2015 and has traveled to five National Senior Games since 2017.  At the 2025 National Senior Games, she won two gold, a silver and two bronze medals.

“There are so many opportunities with senior games –– state and national,” Lamoureux said. “It gets people out of the house and off the couch.” 

After the Polk Senior Games conclude, she won’t just be resting on her laurels. She plans to run the Boston Marathon in April.

The games began in Polk County in 1991, with the support of local businesses, county and city governments, along with community leaders. Polk Senior Games was organized as a public charity, with the purpose of providing an annual series of competitive athletic and recreational events for men and women, ages 55 and over. The minimum age changed to 50 in 1997. In November 1992, 200 volunteers presented the first annual Polk Senior Games with 777 seniors competing in 15 sports and games. Over the years, Polk Senior Games has grown, along with the age group it serves.

“Now, more than 600 volunteers help the event run smoothly, with about 40 people 90-years-old and up among the competitors in events,” said Duane Hopkins, president of the board of directors of Polk Senior Games.

The games run Feb. 28-March 14.

B-roll of Janet Lamoureaux

Schedule of Events

Saturday, February 28
8:00 AM   Softball, Southwest or Westside Complex, Lakeland
8:45 AM   Opening Ceremony, All Saints Academy, Winter Haven Goody Bags, Door Prizes, Sponsor Displays, Torch Walk
9:00 AM   Track, All Saints Academy, Winter Haven
9:00 AM   Powerlifting, Debs Gym, Lakeland
9:00 AM   Shuffleboard Singles, Lake Parker Park
1:00 PM   Chess, Estates At Carpenters, Lakeland

Sunday, March 1
9:00 AM   Shuffleboard Doubles, Lake Parker Park
2:00 PM   Senior Smarts, First Baptist Church, Bartow

Monday, March 2
8:00 AM   Tennis Singles begins, Beerman Tennis Center, Lakeland
10:00 AM   Putt & Chip, Women, Highland Fairways, Lakeland
1:00 PM   Putt & Chip, Men, Highland Fairways, Lakeland
1:00 PM   Sporting Clays, Tenoroc Shooting Center, Lakeland
1:00 PM   Bowling Singles, Maple Lanes, Lakeland

Tuesday, March 3
8:00 AM   Tennis Doubles begins, Beerman Tennis Center, Lakeland
8:00 AM   Golf Mixed Doubles, Schalamar Creek Golf Club, Lakeland
9:00 AM   Horseshoes, Rotary Park, Winter Haven
2:00 PM   Sudoku, First Baptist Church, Bartow

Wednesday, March 4
8:00 AM   Tennis Doubles continues, Beerman Tennis Center, Lakeland
8:30 AM   Cribbage Doubles, Simpson Park Community Center, Lakeland
9:00 AM   Basketball Shooting, Kirkland Gymnasium, Lake Wales
1:00 PM   Trap Shooting, Imperial Polk Gun Club, Winter Haven
1:00 PM   Cribbage Singles, Simpson Park Community Center, Lakeland

Thursday, March 5
8:00 AM   Tennis Mixed Doubles begins, Beerman Center, Lakeland
8:30 AM   Fishing, Tenoroc Fish Management Area, Lakeland
9:00 AM   Five Stand Shooting, Tenoroc Shooting Center
1:00 PM   Rifle Shooting, Lakeland Rifle and Pistol
1:00 PM   Bowling Doubles, Maple Lanes, Lakeland

Friday, March 6
8:00 AM   Tennis Mixed Doubles continues, Beerman Tennis Center
9:00 AM   Bocce, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 80-84, 85-89, 90-94, 95-99, Carefree CC, Winter Haven
1:00 PM   Bocce, 65-69, 70-74, 75-79, Carefree CC, Winter Haven
1:00 PM   Bridge, Sanlan RV & Golf Resort, Lakeland
2:00 PM   Dancing, The Hamptons, Auburndale

Saturday, March 7
9:00 AM   Field Events/Punt Pass Kick, Bartow High School
1:00 PM   Swimming, Winter Haven Chain O’ Lakes Complex

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME BEGINS

Sunday, March 8
9:00 AM   Swimming, Winter Haven Chain O’ Lakes Complex
2:00 PM   Euchre, Bartow Civic Center

Monday, March 9
9:00 AM   Table Tennis, Haines City Community Center
9:00 AM   Bag Toss, Women, Lake Region Village, Haines City
10:00 AM Billiards 8 Ball, Men 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 70-74, 75-79 Brewlands North, Lakeland
12:00 PM Billiards 8 Ball, Men 65-69, 80-84, Brewlands North, Lakeland
1:30 PM   Bag Toss, Men,  Lake Region Village, Haines City
1:30 PM   Billiards 8 Ball, Men 85-89, 90-94, 95-99, All Women, Brewlands  North, Lakeland

Tuesday, March 10
8:30 AM   Pickleball Mixed Doubles, Solivita, Poinciana
10:00 AM Billiards 9 Ball, Men 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 70-74, 75-79 Brewlands North, Lakeland
12:00 PM Billiards 9 Ball, Men 65-69, 80-84, Brewlands North, Lakeland
1:30 PM  Billiards 9 Ball, Men 85-89, 90-94, 95-99, All Women, Brewlands North, Lakeland

Wednesday, March 11
8:30 AM    Pickleball Women’s Doubles, Solivita, Poinciana
1:00 PM    Skeet Shooting, Imperial Polk Gun Club, Winter Haven
1:00 PM    Bowling, Mixed Doubles, Maple Lanes, Lakeland

Thursday, March 12
8:30 AM   Golf Singles, Schalamar Creek Golf Club, Lakeland
8:30 AM   Pickleball Men’s Doubles, Solivita, Poinciana
9:00 AM   Pistol Shooting, Shoot Straight Lakeland

Friday, March 13
9:00 AM   Scrabble, Lake Morton Senior Living, Lakeland
12:00 PM Pepper, Sanlan RV & Golf Resort, Lakeland
1:00 PM   Mixed Team Bowling, Maple Lanes, Lakeland
1:30 PM   Darts, Medulla Baptist Church, Lakeland

Saturday, March 14
8:30 AM    Road Race 5K, Bartow High School
9:00 AM   Archery, Central Florida Archers, Fort Meade
10:00 AM  Walking 5000 M, Bartow High School
11:30 AM  Walking 1500 M, Bartow High School

About Orlando Health

 Orlando Health is a private not-for-profit, integrated academic healthcare system with $14 billion of assets under management, that serves the southeastern United States – including Florida and Alabama – and Puerto Rico. With corporate offices in Orlando, Florida the system provides a complete continuum of care across a network of medical centers and institutes, community and specialty hospitals, physician practices, urgent care facilities, skilled nursing facilities, home healthcare, and long-term and behavioral health care services. Founded more than 100 years ago, Orlando Health’s mission is to improve the health and the quality of life of the individuals and communities we serve. The system provided nearly $2 billion in community impact in the form of community benefit programs and services, Medicare shortfalls, bad debt, community-building activities and capital investments in FY 24, the most recent period for which the information is available. For more information, visit orlandohealth.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and X.

About Watson Clinic

 As one of the largest multispecialty medical clinics in the southeast, Watson Clinic provides comprehensive healthcare services to residents of Lakeland and surrounding communities.  First established in 1941, Watson Clinic has grown to include over 200 board-certified physicians representing more than 40 medical and surgical specialties.  The Clinic is proud to deliver quality healthcare to every generation from our Main Clinic location at 1600 Lakeland Hills Boulevard in Lakeland, as well as 19 additional convenient locations throughout Polk, Pasco and Hillsborough counties. More information is available at  www.WatsonClinic.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and X.