Daniel Munoz/Reuters

France's Jeannie Longo competes in the elite women's time trial at the UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Geelong, 46 miles southwest of Melbourne, September 29, 2010. The Road Cycling World Championships take place from September 29 to October 3.

Ageless wonders

The obituary of the great George Blanda yesterday reminded me that the ageless wonder retired from pro football at age 48 after the longest NFL career ever.

As impressive as that is, today I see Jeannie Longo at age 51 competing in the World Time Trial Championships in Australia. Longo has won the Tour de France Féminin three times and competed in seven Olympics.

As Velonews reported today:

French veteran Jeannie Longo, 51, who has multiple world and Olympic titles and a total of 57 French national titles, finished just off the podium place in fifth, 43 seconds behind Pooley.

Having beat a host of rivals who were not even born when she competed at her first Olympics in 1984, Longo showed that she has every right to be considered for selection at the London Games in 2012.

"I'm satisfied with my performance despite just missing the podium," said Longo, who did not rule out racing at the 2012 Games. "I'm frightened of being too old! But there's only one year to go and preparations will begin."

Discuss this post

You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead.
As a new user, you may notice a few temporary content restrictions. Click here for more info.