Known as “the Hurricane”, this elderly 107-year-old woman hasn’t let age dictate her abilities!
In fact, back in November 2021, at the age of 105, Julia Hawkins set a new world record for fastest 100-meter run at the Louisiana Senior Games, which is a competition for adults over 50.
Now, aged 107, she seems to show no signs of slowing down!Hawkins told WWNO that she hasn’t always been running, and that it was actually one of her children who suggested when she turned 100 that she try doing the 100-yard dash in under 100 seconds. “And I did it in a lot less than that,” she added.
Five years later, at the 2021 Louisiana Senior Games, she wanted to run the dash in under a minute, though she ended up doing it in just over 62 seconds. “I have done much better than that,” she admitted. “It was windy and cold, cold. But on that day it seemed to be the best I could have done with the weather like it was.”
One of the more heartwarming aspects of the race was that Hawkins, a retired teacher, had several of her old students cheering her on from the sidelines! “At that race I had three different children from three different schools from where I taught. And they’re 90 years old. They were in the fourth grade when I taught them and now they’re 90! That tells you how old I am,” she said.