Sheila is 78 years old and probably more active than you. “Sheila’s who you want to be when you grow up,” says Dave Tillman, Sheila’s coach and owner of CrossFit Cedar Park in Cedar Park, Texas. If she doesn’t make it into the gym, Tillman
Fred Murphy, 81, is not your average grandpa. He has served more than 20 years in the U.S. Air Force and holds an 8th-degree grandmaster rank in Taekwondo. After 7 surgeries in one year, and being forced out of the gym for 52 days…Fred is back in the gym, breaking a sweat and inspiring others nearly half his age.
Jeannie Rice has been on a runner’s high since the day she started in her late 30s. Now, at 71 years old, not only does she continue to run, she’s better at it then most people.
Jon Sutherland started his running streak on May 26, 1969. Five decades later, the 68-year-old is still going, logging nearly 200,000 lifetime miles.
When he was 37, Mackert says he started gaining weight and not feeling good. So, he decided to start running, and when he heard about the Cleveland Marathon, he signed up. He ran that first marathon non-stop, wearing a turtleneck shirt, and not drinking any water! He quickly learned what a mistake that was. But he has since learned many lessons about running and now says he wakes up every morning ready to hit the pavement to train.
Meiler was involved in sports throughout her growing up years. She played basketball and took dance lessons. After meeting her husband, the two competed in water skiing events together. Though always active, Meiler did not discover her love of pole-vaulting until she was in her mid-60s and a tennis friend encouraged her to try it. Four years ago, at the age of 80, she set a record when she successfully completed a six-foot pole-vault at a national championship in New York.
Gallant-Charette has only been a serious competitive swimmer for the past 10 years. But her swims now include the English Channel, Loch Ness, and the Strait of Gibraltar. She is participating in the “Oceans Seven” challenge, which takes swimmers to seven of the world’s most difficult swims. A native of Maine, Gallant-Charette’s first swim was the Peaks to Portland challenge, which her brother Robby had participated in and won twice.
Bryant first began going to the gym in order to relieve stress from a difficult marriage. He really had no idea what he was doing at first, he just knew he needed something…
Betty Jean McHugh is 90 and she continues to break long-distance running records around the world. She owns several 10-kilometer, half-marathon, and marathon records for seniors, including her latest: the fastest marathon time by a runner over 90. McHugh crushed the record by two hours at the Honolulu Marathon in December, with a time of 6:47:31.
This great-grandma from Baton Rouge, LA, whose favorite place is her garden, has many passions in life. And for 102-year-old Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins, running is right up there with trees, flowers, and birds.
What would you do if someone told you to give up on an activity because you would never be able to do anything with it? When Robert Marchand was told by his cycling coach to give up cycling because “he would never achieve anything on a bike,” he ignored the advice and continued to ride.
Dixon Hemphill and Orville Rogers caught the sporting world’s attention last year when they competed in USA Track and Field’s 60-meter dash as the only two men in the 90-99 age bracket…
Some love stories endure even beyond the lives of their inhabitants. George and Mary’s story is one of those. Married for 68 years when Mary died in 2010, runner George Etzweiler continues to compete in races with her in his mind and heart…
At 84 years old, Lew Hollander is a prime specimen if there ever was one. He has run 20 Ironman races in a row, which in itself is a miraculous feat…
Probably not many of us will be setting world records well into our 80s. Still, for those who want to make that a goal, Ed Whitlock is an example of how to do it. At 85, the Canadian runner ran a Toronto marathon in under four hours, breaking a world record…
When journalist Michael Mosley went to the London Marathon, he was astounded at the nearly 36,000 bodies of all shapes and sizes who had come to tackle the 26-mile course. A whopping 7,000 runners were in their 50s, and a handful were in their 80s or older…
On October 26, 2017, Dale Sanders, who you might recognize by his trail name of Grey Beard, became the oldest man to complete the entire Appalachian Trail in one calendar year. He was 82 years old…
At 95 years young, Mark Sertich is listed as the world’s oldest active hockey player, and while you might wonder how long he’ll continue playing, he doesn’t have any immediate plans to hang up his helmet and pads…
Marcel Remy is 94 years old and has been mountaineering since he was young. The father of Swiss climbing legends Claude and Yves Remy still regularly climbs in climbing gyms and outdoors. In the spring of 2017, Remy asked…
Ninety-four-year-old George Evans of South Wales, U.K., has been active his entire life. Orphaned at 12, he took up dance at 14, worked as a locomotive fireman during World War II and was an avid swimmer. Today, Evans, who lost his wife and lifelong dance