A 100-Year-Old Woman Made Her Track Debut at the Huntsman World Senior Games

Most people who make it to 100 have earned a seat in the stands. Alta Pierson, of Utah, went the other way, and this week at the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George she lined up for the first track meet of her life.

She ran the 50m in 1:06.61 at Utah Tech University’s Greater Zion Stadium, into a light headwind of 1 meter per second. The Games shared footage of the race on Instagram on Tuesday and called the time a Huntsman World Senior Games record. The 50m is the shortest race on the program, the kind of flat-out sprint plenty of lifelong runners never try.

Official results show Pierson also took on three throwing events, reaching 3.79 meters (12 feet 5 inches) in the discus, 4.03 meters (13 feet 2 inches) in the javelin and 1.84 meters (6 feet 1/2 inch) in the shot put. She finished first in the women’s 100-104 age group in all four events. In the sprint she shared a heat with women from 75 upward, and in the throws she competed alongside the 80-and-over field.

The Games have been held in St. George every October since 1987. Entry was limited to athletes 55 and over in the first year, and the organizers dropped that to 50 for the second, which is why the field now includes people who only took up running at 50 alongside those still racing well after 60. The event runs over two weeks, and this year’s track and field program was scheduled for Oct. 5 to 7.

A Small Club of Late Starters

Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins found the track at the same age. A lifelong cyclist, she began competing at 100 at the Louisiana Senior Games and kept sprinting until she was 105, when she became the first woman to post a 100m time in the 105-and-over age group. Hawkins died in 2024 at 108.

Others have kept going long past the age most people stop. At 100, Roy Allen became the first centenarian to complete the Ottawa Race Weekend 5K, Ed Cox ran a 24-second 100m at the 2023 Penn Relays at 96, and Ruth Richter finished this year’s Berlin Marathon at 88 after a fellow runner talked her out of quitting at 30K.

Pierson has two more races on her schedule. She is entered in the 100m and the 400m on Wednesday, the final day of track and field in St. George, with the 100m set for 11:40 a.m. local time and the 400m an hour later.