Edith Murway-Traina is living proof that age really is just a number.
The great-great-grandmother celebrated her 100th birthday on 8 August 2021.
And she celebrated become a centenarian with the Guinness World Record title for the oldest competitive powerlifter (female).
Lifting weights upwards of 40-150 pounds, according to the official Guinness World Records website, Edith is ‘smashing the competitive powerlifting circuit, dazzling viewers and judges alike with her graceful lifts.’
Remarkably, the former dance teacher only started going to the gym nine years ago - when she was 91 years old(!) - after being invited by her friend, Carmen Gutworth.
"While I was watching those ladies doing their thing, I thought I just as well should pick up a few bars, and I did,” Edith, who claims she was initially dragged to the gym ‘kicking and screaming’, told Guinness World Records.
"Going on a regular basis, I found that I was enjoying it, and I was challenging myself to get a little bit better and a little bit better. Before long, I was part of the team."
Carmen added: ”She bent down and picked it up as if it were her purse. She will not quit and anything that’s hard, it makes her more determined.
“All you have to do is suggest any activity to Edith and she’s right there. We didn’t know that we’d be powerlifting but we got into the gym, one thing led to another, she looked around and anybody that’s doing anything, she says ‘let me try that’. That’s why she lifts well.”
Edith, who is now the proud owner of a host of powerlifting trophies, said: “I was 91 and I started lifting on a regular basis. I never expected that I would be in a competition.
"Once people found out I was in my nineties and I was doing all of these things, it got to be more noticeable.”
But what is it about powerlifting that Edith loves so much?
She says the applause she receives spurs her on more than anything.
"As a performer and a dancer, applause was always a very important part of my enjoyment,” she continued. “As long as I could get a little bit of applause, I was happier each I time I got more and more applause.”
What an inspiring figure.
You can watch Edith in action here…
Her friend Carmen says Edith inspires every other member at the gym: “We’re all seniors. Mostly they’re inspired by Edith. They say, ‘look: she’s going to be 100 in a few days. If she can come in here and work, we can’.”
Finally, Edith believes that everyone deserves recognition for their own unique capabilities.
“I think in my nineties, I became more aware of the need that people have to be recognised for who they are, or what they are, or how they are,” she said. “It’s the most beautiful thing in the world and I think I survive off that, mostly.”
Edith: we salute you!
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