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SOCHI, Russia — Golden anniversaries are a big deal. That’s why a U.S. Olympian from the 1964 Winter Olympics decided to go big to celebrate her 50th year being an Olympian. “Here’s the joke: it's two little old Olympians going to the Olympics in tennis shoes going to the Olympic Games,” said Anne Cribbs, a 1960 Olympics gold medalist. Cribbs, a longtime friend of 1964 Olympic skier Starr Walton-Hurley, said the two made plans to go Sochi two years ago. It’s a girls' trip that truly highlights the circle of friendship. "I can't believe I'm here,” Walton-Hurley said. “It's been 50 years since I've been to an Olympic competition.” Starr Walton-Hurley skied for team USA at the Innsbruck Games in 1964 wearing the first boots that buckled and a prehistoric helmet. Now with 104 years of Olympic history between them, they're soaking in all a modern Olympics offers. These days, athletes are tweeting from the second they get to the Olympics. Back in Walton-Hurley’s day, she got a telegram. "I still have a telegram sent to me by my ski club — California Kandahar Ski Club,” she said. “It was sent to me in Innsbruck congratulating me and that was a telegram. You didn't communicate any other way." Now she's tweeting about running into gold medal winner Sage Kotsenburg, who thought this was the "holy grail" of anniversaries. "He gave me a great hug and said that's wonderful,” Walton-Hurley said. “And he said, ‘are you still skiing?’ I said, ‘oh yeah, better than ever.’ "The hardest thing is realizing it's been 50 years,” she continued. “Or that I'm 50 years older."
