BATON ROUGE – A 103-year-old Baton Rouge woman is proving that you can win gold medals and set records at any age.
Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins began running two years ago – when she was already over 100.
Earlier this week, she competed in the National Senior Games in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Hawkins took home the gold for the 100-meter dash, completing the course in just 46 seconds.
She also competed in the 50 meter race and set another Senior Games record for women over 100 with a time of 21 seconds.
In addition to this week’s records, she is also the oldest woman to compete on an American track.
“I hope I’m inspiring them to be healthy and realize you can still be doing it at this kind of an age if you keep yourself busy and active through your life,” Hawkins said.
Despite feeling right at home blowing away her competition on the track, Hawkins said her favorite way to train is outside in her garden.
She has an acre of land and 50 kinds of trees that she said she works on all the time.
