September 16, 2021
I have always subscribed to the proposition that we are born with a certain number of miles in our body, and I intend to run every one of them before shutting it all down. When I am not injured, I continue to race in local and regional races, from the indoor mile to the half-marathon. And, locally at least, I stack up well against other men my age.
I’ve got nothing compared to Carol Frost.
Frost — whose son is the head football coach at the University of Nebraska, where he played quarterback on a team that allegedly won the national championship (Michigan fans know who the actual national champion was that year) — is a remarkable senior athlete, the current U.S. women’s record holder in the shot, discus and javelin in the 65-, 70- and 75-year age groups.
How she got here is even more remarkable. According to this story at the website of the CBS affiliate in Omaha, the only sports available to her in high school were basketball and softball. She attended Nebraska, where there were NO women’s sports. Says Frost, “I went through four years at the University of Nebraska and never once threw off of a shot or discus circle for the University of Nebraska, because women weren’t allowed.” Instead, she would throw off tractor and combine platforms at the state fairgrounds and would run in the pig barn in the winter.
Her hard work paid off; she ended up winning national competitions and then competed in the discus at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.
So, who has the better arm, her or her son? Says Frost, “Well, he can certainly throw it further than I can, but I’ll take him on in a free throw contest any day.”