Mental Athletes Go Head-to-Head at the 18th Annual USA Memory Championship

NEW YORK, March 25, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- At the 18^th Annual USA Memory Championship on Sunday, March 29^th  (630 Second Avenue, the St. Vartan Conference Center), three-time Champion Nelson Dellis will defend his title against two-time champion Ram Kolli and a field of more than sixty competitors.

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A hockey player, a surgeon, a former auto mechanic, a musician, a software developer, students and people of all ages and from every walk of life will be competing.  They've come from Florida, Michigan, California and many other states throughout the USA. They've transformed themselves into "mental athletes" and they will go head-to-head, brain-to-brain, in the always colorful and suspenseful brain-bending event.

Dellis, who climbs mountains to raise money for Alzheimer's awareness, is determined to do what only one other American has ever done – win four titles. His nemesis, two-time champ Ram Kolli, who took the title from Dellis in 2013, is returning this year to see if he can take one more title and draw even.

How does one become a mental athlete?  "People tend to think that their memory is a static thing, either good or bad. Not true," states Event President and Co-founder, Marshall Tarley.  "Memory is a skill, and like any other sport, when you learn the skill and practice, your memory gets stronger, your brain works better, and you compete for the gold." 

"Anyone can do it!'' is the theme of the event, and researcher, Robert Ajemian of MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research will be on hand to speak about how important it is for millennials, technologists, students, athletes and anyone wanting a powerful and healthy brain to train their memory. Mental Athletes (competitors), too, will be offering tips to the audience on how to improve their memory.

Hundreds of spectators attend the event, which is open to the public free of charge. This year, the intrigue will include the first-ever father-daughter opponents, 48-year-old breast cancer surgeon Dr. John Williams and 14-year-old Alexa from Warrenton, VA.

The USA Memory Championship continues to generate tremendous interest in tandem with America's ever-increasing awareness of both health issues and the need for an intellectual edge in this ever-competitive world.  

Events include the memorization of the following:

• 500-number sequence in 5 minutes
• 100-plus names and faces in 15 minutes
• 50-line unpublished poem (including punctuation)
• two decks of shuffled playing cards

Tony Dottino, who is the event Chairman, Co-founded the USA Memory Championship 18 years ago to dispel myths about the human brain such as, "the older you get the poorer your memory has to be, you are either born with a good memory or you lost out on the gene pool, younger people have better memories and the older we get, the harder it is to learn."  He added, "I continue to be amazed at what our mental athletes have been able to achieve, which has greatly altered people's beliefs about their own memory."

For more information, visit www.usamemorychampionship.com.  Please click here for the day's agenda.

Press Contact: 

Renee Sall
Email
201-315-4337

SOURCE USA Memory Championship

Related Links

http://www.usamemorychampionship.com