A 79-year-old grandmother holds 15 world records and 12 US records in various track and field events, despite the fact that she only competed in these competitions for the first time at the age of 65.
Flo Meiler is not only a grandmother to five, and a great- grandmother to two, but in 2011 she set the world indoor record for women over the age of 75 in the pole vault. She has since set the world record for the 4×100 meter relay and the 60 meter hurdles too, plus she also holds records in the hammer throw, the 200 meter hurdles and various other events.
Meiler, who hails from Shelburne, Vemont, is now set to take part in the 2013 National Senior Games, alongside 10,000 other seniors, in Cleveland this weekend, and she has been talking about her athletic prowess with CNN.
In the interview she admits that she only took up track and field at the age of 60, after she was encouraged to do so by her training partner whilst playing tennis.
The first event that she took part in was the long jump, and she immediately fell in love with it. 12 months later she was competing against various other elderly athletes, and after registering impressive times she decided to improve her training regime so that she could become more competitive.
When asked what her training schedule is, Meiler responded, “On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I do a lot of track. Some days, we will do 25-meter sprints; then we will increase to 50 meters. Then, we’ll go up to 100 meters several times. Then we might do a few 200-meter runs. We change our training day-to-day. On Wednesday, we might practice our hurdles.”
Meiler continued, “On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I’ll do weights with the machines. And I play tennis also. And do some pushups at home, they’re the women’s pushups, not the men’s pushups. It takes a lot of training. You have to be very, very devoted”
Do you think you’ll be able to compete in the National Senior Games when you’re in your 70s?