Sister Madonna Buder completed her first triathlon at the age of 52. The first Ironman event was at the age of 55. Her training began at the age of 48. Forty years later, the “Iron Nun” is still going strong! She is now 92! Buder holds the current world record for the oldest woman to ever finish an Ironman. She achieved that by finishing the Subaru Ironman Canada on August  2012.

Not without injury, returning from a 12-mile bike ride near her home in Spokane, Washington she crashed. “I fractured my shoulder, collarbone, and got four fractures in a rib,” she said of the accident. Yet several months later, she is back to swimming, biking and running, as she just done after many other triathlon injuries.

The difference between most triathletes and Sister Madonna, (the Iron Nun) is that she was 91 years old then.

Sister Madonna was a champion equestrian as a teenager, but sports took a back seat to her lifestyle when she joined a convent at age 23.

Five weeks after that first run, Sister Madonna completed an 8.2-mile race. She eventually ran the Boston Marathon and other races. When she started to get bored with running, a running buddy suggested triathlon. At age 52, Sister Madonna entered her first triathlon (a half Ironman), even though she hadn’t done a swim of that length before. She finished it and shortly thereafter completed her first Ironman. From that point on, the media dubbed her the “Iron Nun.”

She has completed roughly 400 triathlons including 45 Ironman races, all while she was over 50 years old. She holds the current world record for the oldest woman to ever finish an Ironman Triathlon, which she achieved at age 82 by finishing the Ironman Canada on August 26, 2012. She was featured in a fun and inspirational  Nike ad on https://www.youtube.com. She was 86 years old then.