Sylvester Stein at the age of 51, he took up running

I had a shock today ploughing through my emails to receive an email from Sylvester Stein who at the age of 51, took up running. Here is an extract from the email:
“You’ve left it a bit late!” I can remember people saying. “All those years of missed training. It will be impossible for you to catch up now.”
Well, that was 39 years ago and on Christmas Day I will 90 years old. On Christmas Day I will still be going for my morning run. On Christmas Day I will be celebrating 40 years of sporting success and not a single year of it was achieved in my so called ‘youth’!
Since returning to the athletics scene in 1971 I have become a British and European champion sprinter, the World Champion Veteran runner for the 200m and winner of two gold medals. Just a few years ago, I became the British 60m veteran sprint champion, and competed in the World Masters Athletics Games in Austria, setting a new British record.
Don’t ever use age as an excuse.
In fact, I’m hard pressed to think of any reasonable excuse as to why you can’t exceed your sporting expectations, however old you are.
With age comes experience and I have learnt two valuable lessons in my sporting career:
1. Never give up
2. That the first step to becoming a successful athlete in this modern era is to train your brain before your body. Dedication and a passion for competing is crucial but as they say, "knowledge is power" and the world of sport is no different.
I opened my mind to the sports science research available and armed myself with the weaponry required to improve every aspect of my performance.
I made it my business to keep up with the latest training techniques and sport science breakthroughs to ensure I was constantly improving as an athlete. Such is the level of the competition these days you cannot afford to leave a single stone unturned.
That knowledge, combined with a strong will to succeed is the only two ingredients any athlete needs to be truly successful.


I have to say what an inspiration to me being 51 and training for my run through the Amazon.