Art Johnson came home from the Huntsman World Senior Games in Utah with more than medals and memories last month. 
The Sun City Grand resident came back with a broken right foot he suffered during the men’s singles final in pickleball. 
"I know that it happened in pickleball because my opponent was really running me around the court," said the 65-year-old Johnson, who lost the title match. "I don’t know if I would have won, but the injury really took me out of it." 
Johnson finished the match despite the foot injury and didn’t even know his foot was broken until last week. 
"It was a stress fracture of the metatarsal," the Chicago native said. "It was always sore and it never got better so I finally had a bone scan which revealed the break." 
Johnson will have to console himself with the three gold medals and one silver medal he won in Utah while the walking cast on his right foot keeps him out of action for the next four weeks. 
Johnson starred in two sports — swimming and pickleball — at the event, which drew more than 7,000 athletes from 45 countries to St. George, Utah. 
The retired sales executive won three swimming events: 50-meter backstroke, 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke. He won the men’s doubles in pickleball and received silver for his second-place showing in men’s singles in pickleball. 
"Entering the pickleball event was kind of a last-minute deal," said Johnson, who began playing the paddle sport at his wife’s urging earlier this year. "I figured if I didn’t win a medal in swimming, maybe I would earn one in pickleball." 
Swimming has always been Johnson’s specialty. 
He began swimming as a 3-year-old and later starred collegiately at Grinnell College in Iowa. 
"I just kind of gravitated to the backstroke," Johnson said of his swimming specialty. "When I was young, I didn’t like getting water in my eyes when I swam. So I turned over and I think that’s how I started to do well in the backstroke." 
Johnson relies on his 6-foot-4 frame to cover plenty of ground in pickleball, a paddle sport which has attributes of tennis, table tennis and badminton. 
Johnson and his doubles partner, Bud Thorson, were dubbed the Twin Towers by their opponents. 
"Bud is 6-2 1 /2 and when both of us were at the net, we were pretty imposing," Johnson said.