Ida Olivia Keeling ( Potter, May 15, 1915 – August 25, 2021) was an American centenarian

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

athlete. Trained by her daughter Cheryl (Shelley) Keeling, herself a world record holder, Ida set Masters records in 60 meter and 100 meter distances for women in the 95-99 and 100-plus age groups. Her story was featured in a segment in the

Carl Reiner Carl Reiner (March 20, 1922 – June 29, 2020) was an American actor, stand-up comedian, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned seven decades. He was the recipient of many awards and honors, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, ...

-hosted documentary ''

If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast ''If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast'' is a 2017 American documentary film directed by Danny Gold that premiered on May 19, 2017 on HBO. Premise ''If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast'' follows Carl Reiner as he poses the question, "'Wh ...

'', on aging over 90, which premiered on HBO in June 2017. Ida was also featured on ''

Our America with Lisa Ling ''Our America with Lisa Ling'' is an American documentary television series that aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network for five seasons from February 15, 2011 until July 31, 2014. Hosted by journalist Lisa Ling, each episode examines an aspect of Am ...

'' on the

Oprah Winfrey Network Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) is an American multinational basic cable channel jointly owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and Harpo Studios that launched on January 1, 2011, replacing the Discovery Health Channel. The network is led by talk show ho ...

Sports records

60 metres and 100 metre dash

In 2011, at 95 years old, Keeling set the world record in her age group for running 60 meters at 29.86 seconds at a track meet in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, and in 2012 she set the W95 American record at the USATF Eastern Regional Conference Championships at 51.85. In 2014, at the 2014 Gay Games, Keeling set the fastest known time by a 99-year-old woman for the

100-meter dash The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...

at 59.80 seconds; at the time the relevant

USA Track & Field USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 a ...

webpage did not include a 100-meter record for US women older than the 90–94 age division.

100 metres

On April 30, 2016, Keeling became the first woman in history to complete a 100-meter run at the age of 100. Her time of 1:17.33 was witnessed by a crowd of 44,469 at the 2016

Penn Relays The Penn Relays (also Penn Relays Carnival) is the oldest and largest track and field competition in the United States, hosted annually since April 21, 1895 by the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. In 2012, there were ...

Personal life

Keeling's parents, Osborne and Mary Potter, emigrated to the United States from the island of

Anegada Anegada is the northernmost of the British Virgin Islands (BVI), a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. It lies approximately north of Virgin Gorda. Anegada is the only inhabited British Virgin Island for ...

in the

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. She was raised in

Harlem, New York Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater H ...

. Keeling's mother died when Ida was young and her husband died of a heart attack when she was 42. She had four children, two of whom, Charles and Donald, died in drug-related killings in 1978 and 1980 respectively. Her elder daughter, Laura, worked as the CEO of two

National Urban League The National Urban League, formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for African Am ...

affiliates. Her younger daughter, Shelley, is a lawyer and real estate investor who also coached for a local high school. Shelley also coached her mother and first convinced her to run in a "mini-run" at the age of 67. In the book ''Can’t Nothing Bring Me Down: Chasing Myself in the Race against Time'' (2018), by Ida Keeling and Anita Diggs, Ida explained the secret to her health and fitness, stating she worked out 2-4 times a week and attended dancing classes. Her diet consisted of greens, fruit and cod liver oil, and she would have

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with her coffee once a week. She died in August 2021 at the age of 106.

Additional

List of centenarian masters track and field athletes In the sport of athletics, centenarian competitors were recorded in the early 20th century, and have become increasingly common in the 21st century. This has occurred during a period of population ageing and increased longevity in wealthy countrie ...

References

External links

* Indoor 60m at age 102
Ida's website "Healthy past 100"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keeling, Ida 1915 births 2021 deaths American centenarians People from Harlem Sportspeople from Manhattan Track and field athletes from New York City Women centenarians World record holders in masters athletics American people of British Virgin Islands descent