IAAF Worlds champ Spotakova won gold at 36, lovin’ London

Barbora flies Czech flag on javelin victory lap.

What motivates you to stay in the game? For Czech star Barbora Spotakova, the double Olympic javelin champion, it’s throwing in a favorite stadium. At IAAF worlds, the 36-year-old was lovin’ it. London, that is. “The possibility of competing at this stadium once more motivated me to continue my career after the Rio Olympics,” she said in a Euro post. “Winning this, I got the best feeling in my life.” Her gold-medal throw of 66.76 (219-0) wasn’t a W35 world record, however. The listed WR is 68.34 (224-2) by Germany’s Steffi Nerius in 2008. (Barb’s season best is 68.26/223-11.) But talking of being “in this form at this age,” Barb told a Czech newspaper: “I really felt quite broken after qualifying. It is more and more difficult to recover from the competition. There are 300 things to do. You have to be cool. Of course, you also do not underestimate anything or anyone.”

She also says: “From the moment I got to the stadium, it was so strangely calm that everything would go well that would be good. It was just a very strange feeling. I had this feeling in the past only in two stadiums – in Stuttgart, where I have always succeeded, and then in London. Such a special inner peace. I do not know why. It turned out that it was a good choice to stay in athletics even after Rio. It was worth it.”

Good for her. Hope she stays till W40 and beyond — and nails W35 WR.