Login | November 24, 2025
World record physiology
PETE GLADDEN
Pete’s World
Published: November 24, 2025
One of my many reading passions involves sport-science articles, especially those that try to identify just what it is physiologically that enables one particular world class athlete to be so much better than his/her peers.
Because let’s face it, once you reach that level of athleticism all the “could’ve beens” and “wannabes” are gone.
At the elite level everyone’s genetically gifted, everyone trains with laser-like focus and everyone’s fixated on every minute facet of their lifestyles in order to excel in their sport.
Yet inevitably, even amongst the creme de la creme there always seems to be someone who can rise just a little bit higher than the rest.
So during one of my latest skims through exercise physiology abstracts I came across a piece that immediately caught my eye.
The research piece, “How Does She Run So Fast? The Physiological Basis for the Elite Performance of the New—Over 90 Years of Age—World Record Holder in the 200M Sprint: A Case Report,” published on the American Physiological Society’s April 25, 2025 Home/News webpage.
And what blew me away is the amount of time by which this 91-year-old woman bettered her age-group world record in the 200-meter sprint.
Now first of all, you have to understand that short sprint events like the 200 are typically decided by hundredths of a second - across all age-groups.
Ditto for bettering world records.
Yet astonishingly this world record was broken by a mind numbing 1.5 seconds!
So the question researchers posed was this: What is it about this senior athlete that puts her in the stratosphere compared to her elite level peers?
Thus, this petite Italian woman was invited to participate in what’s called a Trajector-AGE study to more fully understand her physiology.
The athlete performed a series of tests - a cycling test and knee extensor (the quadriceps muscles: rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and vastus intermedius) exercises in order to ascertain her tolerable levels of muscular fatigue and her power output.
What they found was very interesting indeed.
So this individual’s VO2 max - her cardiorespiratory system’s ability to supply oxygen to her muscles - was comparable to highly fit women in their 50s, an absolutely off the charts amazing stat to say the least.
I mean to possess a VO2 that represents the creme de la creme for the age-group immediately beneath yours is top flight stuff as it is, but to possess a VO2 that represents the best for an age-group some 40 years beneath you…WOW! That’s downright alien.
Then there’s the stats on her quad muscles.
And these stats center around her mitochondria, those little organelles which are the power centers for muscle cells.
Well, her mitochondrial function was found to be identical to the mitochondrial function of women decades younger than her.
What’s more, when it came to her slow-twitch (Type I) muscle fibers, they are amazingly large, which counts for a whole lot in the world of endurance athletics where having larger Type I fibers mean your aerobic capacity is enhanced, your oxygen storage and utilization is better and your recovery is quicker.
And if that wasn’t enough, she also possessed a substantially high percentage of fast-twitch (Type II) muscle fibers.
This variety of fiber is good at generating lots and lots of power for quick and explosive movements such as jumping, weight lifting and you guessed it…sprinting.
Now understand that possessing either a Type I or Type II fiber make-up which is deemed “superlative,” that’s awesome. But this athlete possesses both fiber types and both are deemed superlative.
And as the lead researcher of this study was quoted in the abstract, “‘This unique combination likely contributed to her exceptional 200m sprint performance, allowing her to maintain both endurance and speed at an advanced age.”’
Okay, so having rhapsodized over this woman’s amazing physiological stats, I don’t want to give you the idea that I believe it’s genetics and genetics alone which have enabled her to excel.
For as it is with any sport, you still have to find your niche, put in a ton of sweat, blood, time and sacrifice to work your way to the top and it’s at that point where you just might discover you possess a rare “genetic gift.”