108-Year-Old Sprint Sensation Julia Hawkins Dies

Julia Hawkins, an age group world record-holder in the sprints, died on Tuesday, October 22 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Julia Hawkins, an age group world record-holder in the sprints, died on Tuesday, October 22 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The 100-meter star, known as “Hurricane” among her peers, was 108.

Hawkins’s daughter, Margaret Matens, confirmed her death in an assisted living center with The New York Times. She said her mother arranged to donate her body to the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University, which is studying longevity.

Hawkins was 100 years old when she took up track and field at the encouragement of her children. According to The Advocate, Hawkins’s four kids signed her up for the 2016 Louisiana Senior Olympic Games, where she finished the 50-meter dash in 19.07 seconds.

Though she had plenty of experience as a competitive cyclist starting in her 70s, Hawkins really shined on the track. In the last eight years of her life, she set multiple world records in the 100 meters. In 2017, she clocked 30.62 seconds, setting the record for women-over-100 at the National Senior Games. Four years later, she ran another world record, this time in the women-over-105 category, by running 1 minute and 2.95 seconds at the 2021 Louisiana Senior Games. According to the National Senior Games Association, Hawkins became the first woman and first American to establish a 105+ age group track record.

In an interview with Runner’s World in 2017, Hawkins said she had no anxiety about whether she’d be good at running when she started. “I knew I could run because I’m always in the yard working, and when the phone rings, I go running inside to answer it,” she said.

Before moving into an assisted living center, Hawkins often trained in the yard of the house that she and her late husband built in 1949. She practiced running back-and-forth in the lanes her son measured out with a ribboned marker when she got “energy spurts.”

For years, the retired teacher, great grandmother, and avid gardener biked around her Baton Rouge neighborhood almost every day, but she discovered a different type of freedom in running. “With running, it’s just me and my body. I can just go out and do the best I can and not depend on anything else to help me,” she said.

While her accolades on the track earned national recognition, it was Hawkins’s unwavering determination and curiosity that inspired those in the running community and beyond. “I don’t feel 101,” she said back in 2017. “I feel about 60 or 70. You are not going to be perfect at 101, but nothing stops me.”