When Flo Meiler lined up for the triple jump at the National Senior Games this summer, she was fired up. She usually makes the hop, skip, and jump into the sand-filled pit from a board that’s 10 feet away from the pit. But the official working the event said he couldn’t change the position of the current board, which was 13 feet away.
Meiler was upset that the conditions were different from what she was used to, making the event more challenging, but jumped anyway—and set a new world record for women age 90 to 94 in three of her four attempts. Her final, and longest, jump measured a whopping 4.55 meters, or 14 feet, 11 1/4 inches. “My friend said, ‘Well, you should get angry more often. You do better when you get mad,’” Meiler tells SELF, laughing.
Meiler’s fierce competitive spirit, even at the age of 91, is proof that fitness doesn’t have a shelf life. And she’s far from alone in proving that women can continue doing big things and chasing ambitious goals even decades into the masters category.
SELF spoke to six women who maintain regular workout schedules or competitive athletic careers into their 90s—and in one case, beyond them. Our goal: to find out what makes these athletes tick, and to see if there were insights that could apply even to exercisers decades younger.
One surprising fact? While many of them have been active in some way for most of their lives, several didn’t pick up their main sport or activity until their 40s, 50s, or later. “My motto, I want you to know, is ‘Never Too Late,’” Meiler says. Here’s more wisdom from her and other nonagenarians and centenarians that we guarantee will power you through your next workout.
1. Don’t be afraid to try new things—and keep moving in different ways even after you find your favorite.
Joyce Jones, 95, started playing badminton in high school, added tennis when she and her husband bought a tennis club when she was in her 40s, and then picked up pickleball about a decade later, after being introduced to it by one of the founders, former Congressman Joel Pritchard, a childhood friend of her late husband, Don.
More than 40 years later, Jones has racked up hundreds of titles in all of ’em. She’s also in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest female competitive pickleball player. None of this would have happened if she hadn’t continually expanded her horizons to include other racquet sports, she tells SELF.
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