92-year-old sprinter’s recipe for athletic longevity

92-Year-Old Sprinter Defy's Aging

Last month, a longtime client sent me an article about a 92-year-old sprinter: Emma Mazzzenga.
(aka the “sprint queen”)

Mazzenga was collegiate sprinter who competed in the 100m, 200, 400 and 800 - placing 4th in the national championships hosted in Rome. Then after college, she hung up her spikes, got married, had kids and became a chemistry professor.

More than 20 years later, she returned to the sport and started competing in Master’s Track events at the ripe young age of 53.

Fast forward to today…

She holds five world records… 9 European records… and 28 Italian records in Master’s sprinting.

At 90-years-old, she broke the 200m world-record in her age group (54.47). Then four months later, she broke it again (51.47). It was these recording-breaking performances that put her on the radar of researchers to figure out what makes her special.

Researchers at the University of Pavia in Italy took Mazzenga through a series of tests including muscle biopsies, knee extension exercises and cycling tests.

Here’s what they found:

• She has the cardiovascular fitness of a highly fit woman in her 50’s
  
• Her mitochondria function (the power plant of the cell)  was equivalent of someone decades younger
  
• She possesses “remarkably large” slow-twitch muscle fibers  (used in walking, jogging and long-distance cardio)
  
• And she has a “very high percentage” of fast-twitch muscle fibers (used in explosive exercises such as max lifting, jumping and sprinting)
  
• Her muscle function resembled someone in their 20’s!
  

What’s her secret?

While some debate how much is genes vs. lifestyle, here are some of the high-performance habits behinds the nonagenarian’s age-defying athleticism:

• She runs without socks
  
• She wears different shoes for competition vs training
  
• Her post-race ritual is having a beer with the other athletes
• She eats fried eggs, fish, beef and some pasta and rice
• She focuses on improvement even if she has no competitors “If I have no competitors, I know that I’ll win from the start, so my aim is to do a good time.”
• Competing has been an outlet for adversity:  “It got me through some difficult times, which of course haven’t been lacking in a life as long as mine.“
• She walks every morning with her friend, “[Running] also allowed me always to be surrounded by a lot of people, so that I was never alone,“
• 2-3 days per week (~75 minutes) she does intervals of 60, 80 and 100m.
• She mixes up walking, running and biking (and if it rains, she bikes at home)
  

In an interview with L’Unione Sarda, she was asked about her ingredients for success in sports, she replied:

Constancy, continuity. If you want to achieve a goal you have to work hard, with passion and be constant.

Kelan Ern
Elite Fitness Coaching