I am excited to announce the upcoming publication of The Wonder Years: Portraits of Athletes Who Never Slow Down, a stunning book being released this summer by Chronicle Books. I was privileged to work on this project with Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Rick Rickman and an extraordinary cast of senior athletes and former Olympians who inspired and humbled me daily. These folks give us all hope for the future.

For the past two decades, Rick has traveled the country chronicling the lives of aging adventurers and amateur athletes who defy the conventional wisdom about what it means to grow old in our society. He likes to talk about the senior underground, a movement that has quietly exploded to include an astonishing 350,000 men and women now competing at the local and state level in hopes of making it to the show – National Senior Games.

No surprise that Rick’s passion led him to become the official photographer for the National Games. These championship games arrive on the West Coast for this first time in August 2009, just as The Wonder Years is being released. More than 10,000 elite athletes will gather on the Stanford University campus Aug. 1- 15 to compete for medals in 18 sports.

These athletes keep raising the bar higher and higher — breaking barriers, setting records, and showing us all the path to The Wonder Years. I’m delighted to introduce some of these exceptional men and women and to share some of Rick’s portraits right here at California Authors.