I’ve written about senior athletes before, but Flo Filon Meiler could be the most incredible of all!
Flo Filion Meiler can be seen at the University of Vermont’s indoor track and field practice sessions every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. By 9 a.m. sharp, the pole is in her hand and her eyes are laser focused on the height she needs to clear. She is the elder among a large group of student-athletes. She certainly stands out in the crowd. The fact that she is 84 and training alongside college-aged students at daybreak would make you wonder why there should ever be age discrimination. Her coach is just 26.
She has been doing this for 20 years. She has won seven medals in her age division (80-85): gold in the pole vault, relay, pentathion, high jump and hurdles, and silver in the triple jump and long jump. She also was part of an American women’s team that set an age-division world record with a time of 3 minutes, 18.43 seconds in the 4×200-meter relay (breaking the previous record by over a minute) in March at the World Masters Athletics Championships Indoor.
The annual competition is for athletes over the age of 35. Meiler’s stellar performance came after a 26-hour journey from Vermont to Torun, Poland, that involves three flights, a five-hour bus ride from Warsaw to Torun and the airline losing her luggage. But she forgot all about it when she stepped into USA’s first gold medal by winning the high jump.
While in high school in Champlain, New York, she signed up for everything — basketball, cheer leading, band, choir. And Meiler, who now lives in Shelburne, Vermont stayed active throughout her adult years. But it was a game of doubles tennis with her husband Eugene that beckoned her to the track.
When she was around 65, while at a meet, she watched as athletes competed in pole vault. She watched them jump and she remembered thinking to herself, “You know what? I think I can do better than that.” And when she went back to practice, she promptly signed up for pole vaulting lessons.
When she is not training or competing, Meiler gives talks and presentations around Vermont, speaking on the importance of exercise and sport. She is on the board of directors for the Vermont Senior Games. And when she is not doing all things track and field, Meiler is playing tennis or out dancing with her husband of 58 years.
Obviously Meiler hasn’t experienced Sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is defined as the loss of skeletal muscle mass and quality, which, if not maintained accelerates with aging and is associated with functional decline. Risking obesity prevalence has led to a high-risk group with both disorders. In another study from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III, it was reported that rising obesity prevalence has led to a high-risk group with both disorders.
Two distressing physical challenges of growing older are a progressive increase in body fat and a corresponding decrease in lean muscle mass and quality known as sarcopenia. Scarcopenia is a major risk factor for numerous adverse health outcomes associated with frailty, including weakness, falls, immobility , functional decline and institutionalized. Despite the high prevalence of sarcopenia especially amount the oldest of old, current treatment options have been of limited value in attenuating this process. Better characterizing the predictors and long-term outcomes of sarcopenia is essential to developing targeting and effective interventions.
The study hypothesized that subjects with sarcopenia and obesity would have higher mortality risks than those with either condition alone.
The conclusion of the study stated that there may be sex-specific differences in mortality risk in those with sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity. Further studies should focus on a standardized approach in identifying sarcopenia and obesity by incorporating functional measures, and using appendicular skeletal mass to determine whether sex-specific differences in fact exist. Providers and researchers alike should concentrate on preventing the development of these conditions. The goal is to further explore these epidemiologic associations in efforts to develop clinical trails to limit one’s long-term functional decline and mortality risk.
Staying strong and active at any age is critically necessary to our longevity. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey published an article on functional strength training. It contained a study that was done in China and the Indiana University. They analyzed 4,449 older adults and found that older people with low muscle strength are more than twice the risk of dying during the study than those with normal muscle strength. Researchers compared associations between low muscle mass and low muscle strength with overall risk of death and found that all-cause mortality was significantly higher among individuals with low muscle strength, regardless of whether they had low muscle mass. Study authors concluded that low muscle strength was independently associated with a higher risk of death, regardless of muscle mass, metabolic syndrome, sedentary time or leisure-time physical activity. The study appeared in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (2018). low muscle strength was independently
