80-year-old Natalie Grabow becomes oldest female finisher in triathlon competition – Credit: Ironman
With every step toward the finish line, Natalie Grabow was proving it’s never too late to get started.
Earlier this month, the 80-year-old grandmother from Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, became the oldest woman to ever finish the punishing Ironman World Championship triathlon in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
She swam 2.4 miles—even though she never learned to swim until she was almost 60—then she pedaled 112 miles on a bicycle and immediately ran a full 26.2-mile marathon to make history. (Watch the video below…)
About 60 other competitors quit before they finished, all of them younger. Grabow did not.
“She’s truly gritty,” Grabow’s coach, Michelle Lake, told NPR. “Natalie is the definition of grit and gratitude: Grateful to make it to the start line, grateful to get to do something she loves everyday, and grateful to inspire so many others.”
Natalie’s story is even more impressive considering when she started.
She grew up in New Jersey long before Title IX vastly expanded the competitive opportunities for female athletes. A part of her that always existed lay dormant, just waiting for a chance.
“When you grow up and you don’t have those options, you know, you just watch the boys doing stuff and you’re just the cheerleader,” she told The Athletic. “It was just thrilling once I could do my first 5K and race and ride a bike with other people.”
As an adult, she worked as a software developer, played some doubles tennis, and eventually found running. The last hobby would prove to be a long-lasting love.
Running helped her form friendships and filled up her free time several days a week. Her friends eventually tried triathlons, but even in her 50s, Natalie didn’t know how to swim. Fortunately, she never once believed it was too late to start.
So, she became a mainstay at her local YMCA pool, using friends and books and videos, along with pure determination to learn some swimming strokes.
She improved enough to try a sprint triathlon and soon had her eyes on longer distances. Grabow worked on stretching and strength training. She cycled on an indoor exercise bike, ran at a nearby high school track, and kept swimming at the same place where she learned the skill late in life.
Twenty years ago, she finished her first half Ironman. A few years later, she graduated to the full-length version. And this past month, Grabow was tackling the famous Ironman triathlon course in Hawaii.
She swam 2.4 miles in Kailua Bay, using the freestyle strokes that escaped her for so long. She biked 112 miles in temperatures that peaked above 80 degrees. Then, came the marathon, 26.2 miles on a road course that gradually climbed more than 1,000 feet.
Just as she had many other times before, she kept moving forward, drawing closer and closer to her latest goal. It was just the latest obstacle in a life that has been searching them out, intent on surpassing them all.
Natalie crossed the finish line in 16 hours, 45 minutes and 26 seconds, becoming the oldest female to ever finish the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. (See the moment below…)
“Absolutely incredible,” the PA announcer said to the spectators in attendance.
The senior is already searching for her next challenge. She signed up for a pair of Ironman races in 2026—and she may even take aim at the record set by Hiromu Inada, who at 85, became the oldest person to finish the Ironman World Championship in 2018.
“The important thing is that people see from my story that they can maybe push themselves a little bit, they can do a little more than they thought they could do,” she told The Athletic. “They can keep going longer than they thought they could go.”
It’s all proof that it doesn’t matter where you start. Or when. It’s about enjoying the journey — and finding your way to the finish line.80-Year-Old Grandma Who Learned to Swim at 59 Just Became Oldest Ever Female Ironman Finisher
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