Late-Life Jets. One Man, 70, Discovers A Fountain Of Youth.

That's Ron Stevens in the middle on the medal podium with Thomas Jones, silver medalist (left) and Michael Kish, the bronze medalist (right). A clean sweep for the Americans.  

By Ray Glier

There is no long cord between Ron Stevens’ youth as an athlete and his athletic accomplishments as a 70-year old. He didn’t play organized sports as a kid. He was in the choir and played music. There is no storyline to follow as a reborn prodigy.

The athletic cord was strung just three years ago when he was 67. He found running in Masters track. That was the start, which was practically yesterday.

That’s what makes Stevens another spectacular story for Geezer Jock. A guy shows up at a track, ties his shoes tight, and three years later he has a gold medal around his neck.

Thursday in Gothenburg, Sweden at the World Masters Athletics Championships, Stevens, 70, won the 100 meter dash for men 70-74 to lead a 1-2-3 sweep for the U.S.

Ron dashed 12.83 for gold, Thomas Jones went 13.13 for the silver medal, and Michael Kish did 13.15 for the bronze.

It was a field crowded with competitive Europeans who are not your grandfather. There were six heats Wednesday, and two semifinals and a final Thursday. On top of that, Stevens ran a heat race Wednesday in the 300meter hurdles and went 49.46, the top qualifying time (the final is Saturday).

In the 100 meter M70 final late Wednesday there was a false start. It didn’t unnerve Stevens, as if he was a 15-year veteran and dealt with the sudden collapse of adrenaline before.

On the do-over, when the gun sounded, Ron burst out of the blocks, hit the drive phase, then top gear, and was the only runner to break 13 seconds at 12.83.

If you’re 70 years old, go ahead down to the local high school football field, start at the goal line and run to the line at the back of the far end zone and see if you can break 13 seconds. That's 100 meters or 109.3 yards.

“The goal was to get to my top gear, sometimes you can and sometimes you can't, it just depends on the day, right?,” said Ron, who lives in Ventura, Calif., and runs for the SoCal Striders.

“I popped into my top gear, and I thought, ‘Well, I'm here’. I kind of peaked, and there was nobody right next to me. I said, ‘Nobody's gonna catch me if I get to my top gear’.”

The only 100m runner who could have caught Ron was Damien Leake, the world-record holder (M70) at 12.59, who did not make the trip to Sweden.

Stevens learned all this sprinting in three years with his brother, Randy, who was there in Gothenburg with his family and that made it special. Randy took a bronze in the high jump and it was a special trip, indeed, for the “Twins” as they are known on the Masters track circuit.

Once across the 100m finish line, Stevens' smile was radiant. He raised two fists chest high and shook them just a little, then took congratulations from the other runners.

There are some tips Ron has for the late-life runner.

His philosophy is go maximum effort with all drills. He prioritizes staying injury free, which means never, ever, training to exhaustion.

Stevens also believe in that voice inside your head. “If you're a positive person with positive self-talk, then positive things will happen for you,” said Ron, who is still working as a high-tech consultant. “I've tried to live that way for probably the last 30 years.”

Stevens tried to tell Geezer Jock his speed comes from being lucky in the gene pool and having lots of fast twitch muscle fibers.

That’s what they all say but, of course, we know by now it’s much more than that.