Simeon, 80, Is Taking His 'Medicine' Again

By Ray Glier

For years, decades really, Simeon Gipson, 80, has had to compensate and snap his life back into order from one misfortune after another. So it is no wonder he could overcome the theft of his racing bike—his “medicine” Simeon called it—and keep up his fight against diabetes and other age-related infirmities.

Simeon, a Navy veteran, did a GoFund Me page and scraped together enough of his own money and bought a $3,500 Cannondale to replace the stolen bike. An 80-year old needs a light bike. A racer needs a fast bike.

Next weekend, Gipson will go to Little Rock, Ark., and race a 10k time trial and then a 20k road race to try and qualify for the 2027 National Senior Games in Tulsa.

I first wrote about Gipson’s bike being stolen May 2. It was devastating because the thief might as well have taken a year’s supply of insulin. Simeon routinely went on 20-mile bike rides to stay in shape, manage his weight, train, and keep diabetes at bay. 

When he was 78, Gipson rode the bike 16 days on a 1,150-mile ride from Tahlequah, Oklahoma to Pittsburgh for The National Senior Games. While in Pittsburgh he spoke to the crowd about how the bike helped him manage the disease.

Now, Simeon can preach again about exercise and the bike in Tulsa.

“I'm really thankful for people, like your (Geezer Jock) readers who kind of pushed it over the line,” Gipson said about his GoFund Me drive. “It helped out a whole lot.”

Simeon is back doing 20k in the morning and 10k in the afternoon five days a week. Remember, he’s 80 years old.

**

When that racing bike was stolen in the spring, and Simeon vowed he would come back to racing and not give up, you believed him. His history said to believe him.

He overcame polio in the 4th grade. He was tested by his parents low expectations for him. Simeon died on a hospital table and was brought back from heart failure. Gipson had a compound fracture of his left femur, recovered, and rode again. He had a total knee replacement, but that knee wore out in seven years. He still got back on the bike. Then there is the tussle with diabetes followed by the theft of his bike.

“After the bike was stolen, I did worry I would never race competitively again, or train nearly every day,” Simeon said. "But I didn't quit."

The weekend after his qualifying ride in Arkansas, Gipson will fly to Ft. McCoy, Fla., for the Chambers Farm Intertribal PowWow. It is an important spiritual, cultural, and social gathering for Indigenous communities involving dance, prayer, and song. Simeon will be the lead veteran and will speak about fitness.

There is no better choice.