It wasn't enough for Scott Harkness to win all 10 events he entered earlier this year at the Rock Hill Senior Games.
This lifelong athlete - a guy his wife describes as "competitive even to how long it takes to drive home" - went to the state senior games in Florence recently and tried to enter 22 events.
From archery to bowling, swimming to high jump, basketball to badminton.
"I could only squeeze in 15 events though," said Harkness, 55. "Had to jump out of the pool and drive four miles to the alleys and compete in the bowling in my bathing suit. Did OK in both of them, too.
"People laughed at me - I had to use rental shoes and a house ball for the bowling that had a chunk out of it."
Nobody was laughing afterward, because Harkness did better than OK in bowling and swimming and everything else.
This man who moves giant research labs for a living won medals in every event he entered - 15 events over four days in places all over Florence.
The result - 11 gold, two silver, two bronze.
Harkness even set state records for his age group in swimming and disc golf. He hadn't swam for more than fun in decades and was so far removed from Frisbee golf that he had to borrow the Frisbees.
He won anyway.
"For an old athlete, I did pretty good," Harkness said
Carolyn Snyder, who runs the senior recreation programs for the city of Rock Hill and witnessed Harkness' incredible run of success, said he is "as gung-ho as any athlete you will find at any age in any sport. He is just determined to win."
But why would a father of four - a grandfather, for crying out loud - who moved to Rock Hill three years ago from southern California, batter his body the way Harkness did at the state senior games?
"He just loves to compete," said Harkness' wife, Naomi, a banker by trade who worried throughout the state competition. "I was just hoping he would get through without hurting himself."
The state games was a marathon. Over four grueling days, Harkness finished:
First in golf, singles and team bowling, swimming, disc golf, softball throw, high jump, badminton, 3-on-3 basketball and the 100-meter dash.
Second in the 200-meter dash and archery, and
Third in shooting basketball free throws and spot shooting.
Harkness' took the second-place finish in archery to heart. This is a guy who shot a pheasant on the wing at age 12 with a bow and arrow.
Never mind that, by the time he got to archery, his arms were bruised the color of overripe bananas.
"He was black and blue for three days," Naomi Harkness said. "His body finally stopped, but it took until that point to stop him."
Harkness hasn't stopped thinking about his next senior games challenge - the national games in Houston, Texas, next summer. Harkness' medals qualify him in several events, and he plans to compete for national supremacy.
And in case you were counting, yes, there was one gold medal left out among those listed earlier.
Harkness is proud of it, but it doesn't have quite the athletic shine of running or swimming.
That gold medal for pushing a puck with a stick translates to "old athlete."
"Shuffleboard," Harkness said. "I won that, too."
