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A senior long jumper in the 80-84 year-old age bracket

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Women aged 80-85, in a 100 meter race

Masters Athletics is an international organization of track and field athletes aged 35 and older. In yearly meets around the world, they compete against others within five-year age brackets, with the oldest group aged 99 and up. Photographer Angela Jimenez, a former heptathlete, was fascinated when she first encountered senior athletes competing at a track event. What she saw in these people compelled her to return again and again to document their unassuming strength and endurance in what would become her series Racing Age.

These seniors defy age stereotypes: they are strong and fierce, and not what we are accustomed to seeing in people of retirement age. In seeing what they are physically capable of challenges you and your expectations of this age group. How fast they run, how high they can jump and how far they can throw is all measured. Masters athletes provide data about the evolution of the human body and ability. They are continually breaking age group records, proving that athletes of retirement age and older are living better and longer.

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Pole vaulter

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Long jumper Axel Magnusson, 86, of Sweden

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Senior athlete John Boesenhofer, 92, is photographed with all his medals

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The oldest sprinter Manuel Gonzalez Munoz, 95, of Veracruz, Mexico

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Javelin thrower Helen Beauchamp, 87, of Memphis, Tennessee

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55 meter sprinters in the 85 and over age bracket

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Johnnye Valien, 82, of Los Angeles, California, competing in women’s shot put

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Roy Englert, 94, after competing in a race

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Tom, 87, in the 55 meter sprint

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