JULIA HAWKINS — “HURRICANE HAWK” AND DIANE FRIEDMAN — “THE FLASH”
“I wanted less than a minute.”
“I WANTED LESS THAN A MINUTE.”
This seems like a perfectly legitimate request, coming from anyone.
Occasionally, you need just a minute to do — or maybe to finish — something.
What if you’re 105 years old?
One might think then, that perhaps more than a minute would be helpful, especially with that kind of mileage on your odometer.
Sounds reasonable, right?
Nope.
Not so fast, my friends.
Not for Julia ‘Hurricane’ Hawkins.
“Hurricane Hawk.”
Age 105.
Like all elite athletes, Julia Hawkins has a broad and wide competitive bent — a natural talent and inclination, that is — and also, a bit of a mean streak.
A couple of weeks ago, she set a 100m world record at the Louisiana Senior Games, recording a time of 1:02.95, in the 105+ age category.
When someone pointed out to her that ‘102’ was less than her age, and then asked if there was some solace in that, Hawkins flatly answered,
“No.”
She is a very tough nut.
Believe it.
The retired teacher is no stranger to athletic excellence.
At 80, she began competing at the National Senior Games, specializing in cycling.
She won several gold medals, but aborted this particular pursuit when she realized that “there wasn’t anyone left in my age to compete with.”
At 100, she took up sprinting.
Think about that.
Sprinting.
At 100.
In 2017 ‘The Hurricane’ set the 100m world record for women over the age of 100, with a time of 39.62.
So, time went along, as it always does.
Then Diane “The Flash” Friedman showed up.
Lest we discount her heart.
On August 15 of this year, at the Michigan Senior Olympics, the centenarian broke three masters sports records.
She shattered world records in both the 100m dash and the 200m dash.
She also broke the American record in the javelin throw.
All of this was in the 100–104-year-old age group.
I’m sure that Julia Hawkins cared only about the 100m result.
Because Diane Friedman ran the 100m race in 36.71 seconds, shaving nearly three seconds off Hawkins’ record.
Whew.
‘The Hurricane,’ hailing from Baton Rouge, was likely, none too happy.
She decided to compete in a new age category.
“I love to run, and I love being an inspiration to others,” she said.
“I want to keep running as long as I can.
My message to others is that you have to stay active if you want to be happy and healthy as you age.”
Hawkins and Friedman have great mutual respect.
No surprise.
And as they should.
Hawkins congratulated Friedman.
“I’m happy for her,” she said.
“The one thing about her and me, I never had a coach, and I’ve never been trained.
I just got out there and ran.
If I had been trained, well, I didn’t want to do it that way.
I just liked to run on my own and do what I could do.”
Never mind.
Never mind any of that.
Healthy competition is everything.
And believe me, the two of them know that.
They had plenty of fun, egging on each other.
Asked by an interviewer, who would win if they ran the 100m race today or tomorrow, Hawkins, the elder, was deferential.
Said she, “I think she would win.”
“No, no, no, no!” Friedman responded.
“That’s why we should meet.
Because we’re going to be competitive…
I’m going to beat the devil out of you.”
Hawkins replied simply by saying, “There’s something about wanting to win that gets in your blood.
I want to be ahead.”
Two peas in a pod.
Not for everybody.
But for me and whomever else?
Amen to that.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in November 2021.]
