Speaker 1: Most of us, if we're lucky, we'll get to our
Speaker 1: nineties and think maybe it's time for a sit down.
Speaker 1: Not mar Kore. She'd never been an athlete, but in
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, aged ninety three, she decided to
Speaker 1: take up running. Hey, I'm Tony Armstrong. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: ballroom where we celebrate the winners, losers and the weird
Speaker 1: stuff between. Man Kor might have had a late entry
Speaker 1: to athletics, but it was clear from a young age
Speaker 1: how driven and spirited she was. Her mother died in
Speaker 1: childbirth and she was raised by her grandparents im Patiala
Speaker 1: in the northwest of India. They tried to send her
Speaker 1: to school, but she wasn't having it. Marn was an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: She earned money weaving drawstrings for pajamas, milling wheat by hand,
Speaker 1: and spinning thread. Then in her twenties, she became a
Speaker 1: nanny and maid in the Royal Palace, where she served
Speaker 1: one of the Maharaja's three hundred and sixty queens before
Speaker 1: having three children of her own. One of those three
Speaker 1: kids was the son Gerdev Singh. He was a longtime
Speaker 1: track and field athlete with more than eighty medals to
Speaker 1: his name. As Marn got older, Gerdev urged her to
Speaker 1: join him on the track. He said it was mostly
Speaker 1: on a whim, but he also wanted to help keep
Speaker 1: her fit. What he maybe didn't expect was her drive
Speaker 1: to become well a world champion. Gerdev took Marn to
Speaker 1: the university track where he trained and asked her to
Speaker 1: run four hundred meters. She did slowly but confidently, and
Speaker 1: she enjoyed it. They went back a second time and
Speaker 1: ran a bit harder and faster. Marn quickly improved, and
Speaker 1: her son made a wild suggestion what if she joined
Speaker 1: him at his international events. She didn't need to be
Speaker 1: asked twice. Marn's late in life athletics career had begun.
Speaker 1: She claimed her first hardware in two thousand and seven
Speaker 1: at the Chundaga Masters in India, which she said she
Speaker 1: did for the heck of it. It was her first
Speaker 1: medal of many. Gerdev took on the role of Man's coach,
Speaker 1: and mother and son packed their gear to travel the globe,
Speaker 1: competing in dozens of Masters athletics events. In twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: at age one hundred, Man ran the one hundred meters
Speaker 1: dash at the American Masters Games in Vancouver, finishing in
Speaker 1: one minute and twenty seven seconds to take the gold.
Speaker 1: The next year, she broke her own world record in
Speaker 1: New Zealand. Her competitors, much younger women only in their
Speaker 1: seventies and eighties, cheered from the finish line. Marn was
Speaker 1: officially the world's fastest centenarian, but running wasn't her only event.
Speaker 1: In twenty nineteen in Poland, she won four events in
Speaker 1: her age category, the sixty meter sprint, two hundred meters sprint,
Speaker 1: shot put and javelin. Just a reminder, she was one
Speaker 1: hundred and three years old at the time. Marn was
Speaker 1: an inspiration, encouraging other old ladies, as she put it,
Speaker 1: to take up running and to make their children part
Speaker 1: of the adventure like she had. Marn and Gerdev were
Speaker 1: invited to share their achievements with UNI students. It wasn't hard,
Speaker 1: she told them, just a simple diet with plenty of
Speaker 1: nuts and homegrown soy milk, plus a twenty kilometer run
Speaker 1: every morning. Easy. Speaking of Gerdev, it's probably also important
Speaker 1: to remember that he was as well as her coach
Speaker 1: and a decorated athlete in his eighties. While this was happening,
Speaker 1: a casual run around a university track had become a
Speaker 1: family tradition. Mancore died in twenty twenty one. She was
Speaker 1: one hundred and five years old and for more than
Speaker 1: a decade she proved that age was no barrier. They
Speaker 1: called her the Miracle from Chundagar and she was. Man calls, drive,
Speaker 1: tenacity and fearlessness earned her the Narri Shakti Perrasca Award
Speaker 1: for Women's Empowerment, the highest honor for a civilian in
Speaker 1: India and a permanent place in the nation's heart. You've
Speaker 1: been listening to an iHeart production the pool room with me,
Speaker 1: Tony Armstrong. Catch you next time.