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Video games are often considered exclusively a pursuit of the young and male, starting with children of the 1980s. The first home version of a video game, Pong, wasn’t released until 1975.

Nintendo Wii, the first video game console to incorporate player movement into actions on the screen, wasn’t released until 2006.

Most of the folks playing Wii games in the Carlisle Summer Olympic Challenge on Wednesday afternoon were born before TV was even invented — before color TV, before the remote control, before microwaves even. So how in the heck could they possibly understand — and love — a video game?

But maybe that ability of seniors to love youthful pursuits is part of the point of this week’s fifth-annual Carlisle Summer Olympic Challenge, held two weeks before the Summer Olympics begin in Beijing, China.

Age blends almost effortlessly with youthful activities at the Carlisle’s Olympic Challenge, where all the participants are seniors and some require assisted living. The Carlisle, located off Airport-Pulling Road in North Naples, is a full-service senior community with independent and assisted-living options.

The Challenge participants were split into three teams prior to Monday’s opening ceremonies, and the week-long competitions range from foul shooting to golf chipping to the walking challenge to bridge. But perhaps nowhere was the link from younger generations to older generations more evident than in the Grande Room on Wednesday, where the Wii bowling competition captivated about a dozen senior residents.

Most of the participants play the Wii bowling video game once or twice a week, event referee Jennifer Thomas said.

“They only like bowling,” she added.

And a few looked like experts, including Jean Kies, who said she had bowled for real once “maybe 40 years ago.”

Nonetheless, Kies started the game with three-straight strikes, a turkey.

“You get lucky every now and then,” she said, smiling.

The Wii bowling game uses a remote that can sense player movement in order to simulate real bowling. Due to arthritis and aching joints — plus the heavy weight of a bowling ball — actual bowling would be difficult, if not impossible, for most of Wednesday’s Wii participants.

But using the Wii, they were able to line themselves up using the remote, then step forward, swing their arms back and unleash the ball down the lane.

Everyone stared at the large TV in wonder.

Frances Kranz, who bowled after Kies, needed a little help from her husband, Fred, who bowled a 144 in his game. Fred helped Frances line up each time, and when she finally got a spare, he pumped his fist in delight, then helped her back to her seat.

Rosie Roselli wasn’t even playing in the second game, but as a Wii expert, she helped Jane Pack to a 111 score. Seated directly in line of the screen, giving advice to each player, Roselli almost seemed like the Godfather of the event.

Her low, gravelly voice befit her role, sounding a bit like Marlon Brando as she half-whispered to Pack: “This is the last frame. ... Make it good.”

It may have been the last frame for Pack, but these Carlisle Olympians seem to have many more frames of Wii — and of life — left to play.