Emma Mazzenga is no bizarre 92-year-old. The Italian is an elite sprinter who has damaged a number of world information in observe and discipline.
Mazzenga, who was born in 1933, made world headlines in 2024 when she broke the 200-meter world indoor document within the over-90s age group, ending the race in a time of 54.47 seconds. She nonetheless continues to race, each making an attempt to interrupt information and having fun with the fun of operating.
“I just like the competition. And even now, maybe a little less than in the past, I still feel tense before each race,” she instructed NCS Sports, including that she set a brand new 200m private greatest of fifty.34 seconds again in June.
Many individuals have wished to know the secrets and techniques of her success and the way somebody her age has managed to remain match and proceed coaching at such a excessive stage. Mazzenga mentioned there isn’t a day that goes by when she doesn’t do some form of bodily exercise – however this wasn’t one thing she did all through her whole life, regardless of an early ardour for sports activities.
“I have always loved playing sports. When I was in high school, when I was 14 or 15 years old, I played basketball. Then I went to university, and the president organized a team of female athletes, so I competed for the University of Padua for seven or eight years,” Mazzenga mentioned.
“I used to be excellent however I used to be actually extra fitted to a person sport, so I continued. I graduated whereas persevering with to compete. But then, in 1963, I bought married, and for 25 years, I had faculty and household, so I didn’t do something.
“I went to the mountains, hiked, went snowboarding, however I gave up aggressive sports activities and resumed in 1986 at age 53.
“Since 1986, I resumed training; then I also had a coach and I always trained three times a week – initially a couple of hours, now one hour a day.”
Emma is testomony that it’s by no means too late to start out once more. Her residence, the place she lives alone on the outskirts of the historic metropolis of Padova, is stuffed with a whole lot of medals and trophies that she has collected competing everywhere in the world for the final 40 or so years.
One of her favorites is on her wall – a medal from the World Masters Athletics Championships within the W75 400-meter race from the United States: “It was the first one, the first world title in Sacramento in 2011.”
To obtain such success, Mazzenga follows a balanced weight loss plan with none particular strict restriction, having fun with small parts and a nightly glass of purple wine.
“At five in the morning, I’m awake. I have breakfast and generally have a ham sandwich or salami sandwich and then do various things,” she says.
“I’m going exterior, go for a stroll, buy groceries, do some cleansing round the home. Then I’ll typically have a snack, then some fruit and a few cookies.
“At 12, lunch in fact, and I eat some pasta – 30 or 40 grams – and meat or fish and greens. In the afternoon, I learn. I’m going to the flicks as a result of I’ve a multiplex right here 200 meters away, so it is very handy. Or possibly I’ll take the tram downtown.
“In the evening, I’ll eat some vegetables, and afterwards I’ll sit in front of the television and, more often than not, I’ll fall asleep.”
After studying in regards to the nonagenarian’s record-breaking races, Simone Porcelli, an Italian professor of human physiology at the University of Pavia (positioned virtually 19 miles south of Milan), contacted Mazzenga to be a part of a research referred to as the TRAJECTORAGE Project.
The Italian-based analysis mission – headquartered at the University of Pavia with researchers from the Politecnico di Milano, University of Padova and Politecnico di Torino in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin and Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha in Toledo, Spain – goals to analyze the physiological mechanisms underlying the deterioration of neuromuscular operate with age via long-term monitoring (each six to 12 months) of wholesome individuals over 60.
The objective is to enhance the data of the connection between the nervous system and skeletal muscle, whereas additionally understanding the protecting position of bodily train.
“As we age, we get slower, we were not as fast as we used to be. We don’t jump as high, for example, we don’t move enough and sometimes we are not (moving) that (much) physically, right? So that, you know, brings us to decline a little bit as we age,” Martino Franchi, one of many researchers based mostly at the University of Padova, instructed NCS Sports.
“So what we want to understand with this study is: is there a point in our life where things start to go downhill?”
The researchers concerned within the two-year research say Mazzenga is their “cherry on the cake” as a result of she is the oldest and most energetic participant within the mission, serving to them perceive why some individuals age quicker than others.
The multi-world document holder was beforehand examined 18 months in the past, and so they discovered her cardiorespiratory health to be just like that of somebody of their 50s, and her muscle’s mitochondrial operate to be nearly as good as that of a wholesome 20-year-old.
This month, Mazzenga was again within the scorching seat at the University of Pavia labs, as NCS Sports went alongside to witness her present process exams over the course of a day. The scientists main the mission had been eager to see if she had physiologically aged for the reason that final spherical of exams.
A chunk of Mazzenga’s muscle was collected from her quadriceps to verify fiber dimension, capillarization, mitochondrial operate, and single-fiber mechanics to find out the energy and velocity of contraction. She additionally underwent a maximal biking take a look at, an ultrasound scan, and neuromuscular evaluations to find out her cardiovascular health, leg energy, and oxygen supply effectivity.
Franchi mentioned they had been desirous to see how Emma had modified since her final take a look at 18 months in the past. Her deep muscle structure resembled that of a a lot youthful individual, just like athletes examined for efficiency.
“I’ve never met someone like Emma,” Franchi famous, calling her a novel and “top-notch example.”
After the outcomes got here in, one factor was clear: Mazzenga had aged, as anticipated, however nowhere close to as a lot as a median individual. This anomaly is precisely what researchers wished to grasp – why her decline is so minimal in comparison with typical getting older patterns and what mechanisms contained in the muscle would possibly clarify this resilience.
“(Mazzenga) will give us a reference point that we will use as a comparison to look back, maybe on the general population and understanding, if the same traits that we see on Emma can be found on some people. And if those are related to either, you know, like somebody that found the Fountain of Youth and we don’t know where it is yet or if this is related to exercise and physical activity.”
Still, for Mazzenga, she continues figuring out or coaching three days per week, however she says the key lies in one thing extra fundamental.
“I’m going for a stroll right here within the neighborhood, or I’m going downtown. In quick, I transfer. I by no means keep a complete day in the home except it is climate that forestalls me going out.
“This is necessary. This is the way it ought to be continued. And above all – don’t isolate your self. (It’s been) a yr plus (that) I began to attend some teams right here within the neighborhood and likewise this morning I used to be there and we meet with totally different matters, we learn some books in brief in order that we are able to discover one another.
“It is very, very, very important.”