Julia Hawkins is a 104-year-old track & field champion from Baton Rouge, and she will be the oldest to compete in the USATF Masters National Indoor Track & Field Championship among national champions.
Hawkins will go against 800 other athletes aged from 30 to 104. 27 of the competitors are reigning world masters champions, and 19 of them are Masters Hall of Famers. The race is about to take place from March 13-15 at LSU.
Hawkins herself set the new record at the Senior Games in the 50-meters dash, coming in first place in her division. She participated in the Senior Olympics when she was in her 80s, and she broke records and won many awards.
Hawkins studied education in the 1930s, and she has been an LSU Tiger for more than a century. She talked about her journey as a tiger and a runner in an interview with the university in 2017, and she said that she’s always been active, she has maintained a healthy weight throughout her life, and she tries to eat right.
She has never smoked nor drank, and she enjoys living. You can watch the interview for yourself below.
