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Stanislaw Kowalski aged 104

Stanislaw Kowalski: 14 April 1910 – 5 April 2022

The oldest competitive athlete in history dies aged almost 112 years

Polish super-centenarian and Masters athlete Stanislaw Kowalski died earlier this month, just nine days shy of his 112th birthday. He was the oldest track star to compete and the oldest man in Polish history. At the time of his death, on 5 April 2022, Kowalski was also the oldest man in Europe and one of around one in a thousand centenarians who reach 110 years of age. 

He was single-handedly responsible for the creation of a new World Masters 105-109 years age group when he set the M105 world records for 100m (34.50sec) and shot putt (4.27m)!

That his name does not appear in Masters world records for younger age groups is explained by his rather late entry into the sport of track and field athletics. Although he was born three years before USA Olympic legend Jesse Owens, it was more than a century before Kowalski began his own brief but brilliant athletics career.

Between May 2014 and March 2016, his last date of competing, Kowalski set world records for 60m indoors (19.72) as well as at 100m, shot, and discus. When, aged 104, he became the oldest European to record an official time for 100m (32.79 seconds) he said: "I feel like a new man".

Since Kowalski's ground-breaking M105 performances, only Japanese sprinter Hidekichi “Golden Bolt” Miyazaki and Louisiana’s Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins – featured here in runABC – have recorded marks beyond 105 years. Miyazaki died in 2019; Hawkins is still competing!

Stanislaw Kowalski's mother lived to 99 and he is survived by his four children, eight grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, and five great-great-grandchildren. He started working in 1953 on Polish State Railways, commuting to work on a bike. After retirement, he kept up his fitness on two wheels, and even after his 90th birthday he would cycle 12K daily to the cemetery to visit his wife's grave. 

Kowalski was well known in his later years by his friend Jerzy Krauze, a former European Masters Athletics officer who helped organize the 2019 world masters indoor championships in Torun, Poland. 

On Facebook, Krauze called Kowalski an amazing man: “Very open to people, full of energy and kindness. I had the opportunity to talk to him several times about his longevity, the diet he used, and physical activity at his age. His luminous mind and logical expression were very efficient in my opinion – at the level of a 70-year-old".

You can enjoy Kowalski's enthusiasm and remarkable athleticism in this YouTube clip:

The message from Stanislaw Kowalski is it's never too late to start and you're never too old!

Image courtesy Facebook

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