A Greater Toronto Area resident just won the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship in the over 60 category — and she’s the first Canadian to do it.
Vicki Richardson has known she loved puzzles since a young age, when she sat on her father’s knee and helped him decipher which pieces went where. What she didn’t know is that decades later, she’d be flying to Spain to compete in a puzzle championship.
“I am so proud to be the Canadian that was up on the podium,” she told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning Thursday. “It’s so exciting, almost surreal, just a fantastic experience.”
Richardson stopped doing puzzles in her late teens, when she was completing her post-secondary education and starting a family. But when she retired in April 2023, she found herself having less to do.
So, she returned to puzzles, this time joining the Canadian Jigsaw Puzzle Association, embarking on the endeavour with her daughter and being the one to teach her grandchildren all about the art of puzzles.
The World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship is no easy feat, Richardson said. The event, which ran from Sept. 15 to Sept. 21 in Valladolid, Spain, gathers hundreds of speed puzzlers in one room, where they’re timed and ranked.
Richardson said the 500-piece puzzle she did was specifically created for the competition and isn’t available for sale in Canada at the moment. In just over one hour, she opened the box, turned over the pieces and constructed the puzzle that led her to international acclaim.
Richardson says one hour seems too long, though. She’s usually able to do 500-piece puzzles in just 40 minutes due to her many hours of rehearsal.
“You just practice, practice, practice. Many different kinds of puzzles, over and over, record your time, try to turn over the pieces as quickly as possible,” she said.
The minute she’s done, she packs the puzzle back into its box and puts it away again.
“It’s done, on to the next,” Richardson said. “I have a good puzzle library.”
Richardson’s daughter Tracy Nonomura says her mom’s very excited about winning the championship.
“She’s working on figuring out the right place to put her trophy,” Nonomura said. “I’m incredibly proud of her. She practiced a lot for this and she really, really deserves it.”
The two planned the trip last minute during Easter this year. “We were nervous because we didn’t really know what to expect,” Nonomura said.
Deep down, she knew her mom had it in the bag. She vividly recalls when she was growing up and Super Bowl weekend rolled around, her mom would whip out the puzzles while the rest of the family watched the football game.
“It was really intriguing,” Nonomura said. “It was always a passion, even when we were kids.”
That’s actually how they do puzzles most of the time — watching a show, without all the stress of speed puzzling.
“[Puzzles] are relaxing. They do engage the mind,” Nonomura said.
She said she’s also noticed her mom’s mind continues to be sharp.
“Her cognitive ability didn’t decrease, which you would kind of expect after retirement when you’re not using your brain necessarily in the same way. But that didn’t happen to her,” she said.
Age-appropriate mental exercises, such as jigsaw puzzles, can indeed have protective properties when it comes to cognitive abilities, said Lixia Yang, a psychology professor at Toronto Metropolitan University who is also the director of the school’s Cognitive Aging Lab.
“It can help you to use your brain reserve and maintain the brain functions even into older adulthood,” she said. “Don’t aim too high. It should be something within your capacity and within your comfort level.”
Yang added that everyone should maintain an active attitude as they age.
“Age is just a number,” she said. “Whatever keeps you active and keeps you engaged is good for the aging process.”
