Jerry Smartt ran some M75 distance races at Lahti worlds, and though he didn’t bring home a medal, his visit was golden. It was a homecoming of sorts. In a great profile published today in the Columbia Missourian, he tells Sarah Nail: “I learned how to run when I first went to Finland in 1956. I had their Olympic coach as my coach. He taught me how to land softly instead of shocking my knees hard.” And there he was in August, still running lightly. W90 record-setter Olga Kotelko also got some smart press on her return home to West Vancouver, Canada. But “one of her (11) gold souvenirs from Finland is already on someone else’s neck: the captain of the cruise ship she sailed in on her return voyage.” Said Olga: “He’s the captain. Who else? Why not?”  Why, Olga!  You little fox!  Gotta love it.

Jerry and Olga have a combined 167 years on this planet. And 167,000 medals.

Here are the stories about Jerry and Olga, in case the links go bye-bye:  

77-year-old runner still hasn’t hit the wall

By SARAH NAIL/The Sedalia Democrat

WARSAW — He is the fastest man his age in the world.

Jerry Smartt, 77, has a couple hundred medals that catalog his 62 years of race competitions.

“I’ve always loved running a foot race,” he said. “There’s just something about outrunning someone.”

The 130-pound Smartt recently returned from the World Masters Track and Field Championship in Lahti, Finland. He competed in the 75 to 79 age division, and placed seventh in the 5K and sixth in the 10K. The runners who beat Smartt on the track were younger, making him the fastest man his age in the world.

Although there might be other 77-year-old runners in the world who could beat Smartt, they failed to compete in the race.

“You don’t get a rank unless you’re at the meet,” he said.

Smartt, an Olympic team alternate in 1956, continues to compete in races for the enjoyment and the motivation.

“Come next July, I defend my title, so there’s some reason right there to stick with it,” he said.

Smartt typically competes in 5K or 10K races. The fastest speed Smartt has recorded for the 5K was 14 minutes and 22 seconds. His best in the 10K was 30 minutes, 40 seconds.

Smartt has competed in races for 62 years. Most runners who compete in high school or college quit when they are finished with school and become “fat and out of shape,” Smartt said.

“The secret is to never stop,” he said.

Smartt runs twice every day, for about an hour in the morning and an hour and a half in the afternoon. He typically trains using a 100-meter course and repeating it 30 to 40 times, or a 200-meter course with 20 repeats.

“If it comes to a point where I can’t run, I’ll walk three to four hours a day,” Smartt said.

People might assume all the years of running would take a toll on Smartt’s knees and hips, but he has never had any joint problems or any other health issues.

“I learned how to run when I first went to Finland in 1956,” Smartt said. “I had their Olympic coach as my coach. He taught me how to land softly instead of shocking my knees hard.”

The coach showed the runners how to have a smooth movement rather than a bouncing, jarring, up-and-down motion.

Children’s games are what caused Smartt to discover his running abilities. He used to play tag in grade school.

“As a third grader, nobody could catch me or my buddies,” he said.

Smartt used his skill to help him complete his chore of mowing the grass using a reel mower.

“I actually ran behind it and pushed it. … That was resistance training,” he said.

Smartt ran track in high school, but was unable to handle running in the high altitude of Fort Collins, Colo., where he attended college. He joined the Air Force and was stationed in Japan.

“That’s when the running really began to blossom and take off,” he said.

Smartt competed on the Air Force’s track team and remembers traveling from Tokyo to Rome, N.Y., for a meet. He competed in the 1956 Olympic trials.

“I had no idea how to run my race; I’d never had a coach,” he said.

The names of his fellow competitors was a “who’s who” of the racing world, Smartt said. He finished fourth in the 10K, which landed him a spot as first alternate on the Olympic team. Smartt traveled and trained with the team, ready to fill in if another runner became injured.

In 1958, Smartt was among an American team to compete in a series of meets with the Russians.

Smartt has had his share of media coverage over the years. He keeps a scrapbook of the clippings in which he was featured around the world. However, journalists have been unable to master the correct spelling of Smartt’s name, misspelling it eight times over the years.

Josef Smargg, as he was referred to in a Flemish newspaper, is Smartt’s favorite misspelling. The misspelling of his name is something Smartt has been used to since birth. His birth certificate had his last name, along with the last names of both his parents, misspelled “Smart.”

The mistake nearly kept Smartt detained in the 1950s when he was traveling in Africa with some of America’s elite runners. His passport had his last name spelled correctly.

“The passport had to jive with everything else,” he said. “I had to sign my name incorrectly to get out of Africa.”

Smartt had the birth certificate (which also had his incorrect birth date) fixed when he was in his 30s.

Smartt, a Texas native, retired in Warsaw because of “two lips.” His college sweetheart retired in Warsaw and the two were reunited after 33 years. Smartt never left Warsaw and the couple have been together for 23 years.

The longest distance Smartt has competed in is a marathon, which is 26 miles. He ran in the Boston Marathon in 2006.

“I don’t do any more marathons,” Smartt said. “Once you do Boston, that’s the ultimate high.”

Smartt shows no signs of giving up the feel of the road beneath his feet.

“I’m planning on running until I just drop on the road somewhere,” Smartt said. “That’d be the way to go for a runner.”

Here’s the story about Olga:

She’s still got it
90-year-old dynamo sets eight more world records

Andy Prest
North Shore News

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

For West Vancouver super senior Olga Kotelko, winning never gets old.

In August the 90-year-old travelled to Lahti, Finland for the World Masters Athletics Championships and when she returned home she brought with her eight new world records and 11 gold medals.

Well, actually, not all the medals made it home. Kotelko — who holds many records and championship titles in the 80-and-over, 85-and-over and now 90-and-over age groups — is known to hand out her medals to people she meets as she goes about her inspirational life. One of her gold souvenirs from Finland is already on someone else’s neck: the captain of the cruise ship she sailed in on her return voyage.

“He’s the captain. Who else? Why not?” Kotelko said with a laugh when the North Shore News caught up with her after the world championships. “When I got on the ship the captain was Canadian and that’s why I gave him a gold medal. He was totally taken aback by it. He was surprised that anybody would do that — but that’s what I do with my medals, I don’t keep them.”

Kotelko’s new world records in the 90 age group include high jump, triple jump, long jump, weight throw, javelin, discus, the 200-metre race and the throwing pentathlon. Her other golds came in the hammer throw, shot put and 100-m race.

“I did well,” she said, adding that she was feeling “just exuberant” following the competition, which saw her compete in 11 events in eight days. In some of the events Kotelko was the only competitor but in others there were challengers that she got the best of. Her world record javelin throw of 13.54 m was more than six metres past her nearest opponent’s throw, while her discus toss of 13.92 m, also a world record, was 1.37 m past her closest rival.

She’ll be back at it soon, too. The B.C. Seniors Games are Sept. 16-19 in Richmond and, following that, Kotelko is scheduled to travel to Sydney, Australia for the World Masters Games in October. While adding eight world records to her collection was nice, Kotelko hinted that she’s not done yet. “I still have some to go,” she said, adding that the record that is on top of her hit list is the clocking for the 400-m race.

One day after returning home from Finland Kotelko was hard at work, practicing her sprints on the track at West Vancouver secondary.

Here are the new records Kotelko set in the 90-and-over category at the World Masters Athletics Championships, according to the website www.world-masters-athletics.org:

– High jump, 0.82 m

– Triple jump, 4.02 m

– Weight throw, 6.49 m

– Javelin, 13.54 m

– 200 m, 56.46

– Discus, 13.92 m

– Long jump, 1.77 m

– Throwing pentathlon, 5,905 points.