Burlington: What would one expect from an 84-year-old? That that person should be relaxing on her rocking chair or knitting at her home, but this woman from Vermont is breaking all odds by participating as a pole vaulter in an international competition.
Florence "Flo" Filion Meiler is practising hard for the World Masters Athletics Championships Indoor, where she is all set to participate in a range of athletic sports such as long jump, the 60-meter hurdles and the 800-meter run, as well as the five-event-in-one-day pentathlon.
Pole vault is her favourite of all the events in which she is participating.
Meiler has set pole-vaulting records at ages 70, 75 and 80, when she did a 6-foot vault at an outdoor event.
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About participating in competitions she says, "It's challenging. You really have to work at that. You have to have the upper core and you have to have timing and I just love it because it's challenging."
She has been into sports from her high school and says, "You name it, I guess I did it. And then I got involved a lot in waterskiing because we only live four miles from Lake Champlain, and we had a water ski club."
Meiler also competed in table tennis with her husband at the Vermont Senior Games, when she was encouraged to try the long jump.
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Her coach Emmaline Berg says, "She comes in early to make sure she's warmed up enough. She goes home and stretches a lot. So, she pretty much structures her entire life around being a fantastic athlete which is remarkable at any age let alone hers."
Meiler hopes to set new records in June at the National Senior Games in New Mexico as she will turn 85 then and will be put under a new age group.
