How One Man Rides The Fun Train To The Top Of The Masters Rankings

Bernie Stamm, 87, shows pure joy after tying a world record in the high jump. This is what it is all about, Bernie says. Once you wrap your arms around the fun, performance follows. Photo by Tyrone Turner/WAMU.

 

By Ray Glier

It all looked so unserious and slapstick for the occasion. Bernie Stamm, 87, was making an attempt at tying a world record in the high jump. A crowd of people around the high jump mat on August 2 in Columbia, Md., was roaring with laughter.

It was sooooo Masters Track & Field.

It went like this:

An attractive woman, who was not his wife, had her hands down Stamm’s athletic shorts in broad daylight. Bernie’s wife, Carol, was nearby and Stamm said his wife’s eyes got as big as a satellite dish with “What the heck is going on?” The blast radius of Carol’s look covered the entire high jump area.

The woman, who was another competitor, saw that Stamm’s tee shirt was untucked on his previous attempt at tying the world record and the shirt had clipped the high jump bar and knocked it down. Naturally, this being Masters track & field where help is on your doorstep, she couldn’t let it go uncoached.

“She had been cheering me on, which is how it is at Masters track & field, everybody cheers on everybody, and she told me about the shirt and said, ‘Can I help you?’,” Bernie said.

“I said ‘Sure’.”

The woman—Bernie says he can’t remember her name—proceeded to undiplomatically tuck his shirt down into his shorts.

Bernie explained himself to his wife and the small crowd gathered around the mat and that set off the uproarious laughter, which carried on for a few minutes. 

Stamm then went and tied Carl-Erik Särndal’s world-record in the high jump for men age 85-89 (1.28 meters, or 4.19 feet)....and ran and kissed...his wife. (See superb photo sequencing below)

“The laughter gave me so much relief. Everybody laughed so hard, and that relaxed me,” Bernie said. “Isn’t that why we do this? The joy. The fun.”

If you don’t believe him just look again at the picture of exhilaration above, which was taken after the jump.

The pressure that had dogged Bernie that afternoon was replaced with a relaxed frame of mind and sheer focus. 

“I was preparing for the jump and I was witness to this in-the-zone thing you always hear about,” Stamm said. “I stood there and all of a sudden it was like the world disappeared around me. There were no sounds. The only thing was the bar and me, nothing else.”

Bernie, who was born in Switzerland as “Bernhard” and lives in Ashburn, Va., started competing in Masters Track & Field in 2012 when he was 72. In local, state, regional, national, and international meets, Stamm has won 82 gold medals, 12 silver, and three bronze in mostly the high jump and javelin.

Just as impressive as the medals is this:

In 2018, as a 79-year old, Bernie’s best jump was 4 feet. He is 4.19 feet currently. It’s not a big improvement…unless you are an octogenarian, an age cohort where the doomers insist you are in perpetual decline.

**

Stamm said it is challenging to find precedent for training for elite Masters athletes who are 87 years old. The internet has an abundance of tutorials for the high jump and Bernie soaks up the lessons. The hard part is convincing the internet an 87-year old can keep up physically.

“When it comes to all the technical aspects and all that, there is nothing like the internet,” Stamm said. “But I had to figure out my own way as far as training. There's hardly anything you find for people my age working toward a world record and world championship level. They talk a lot about younger people. 

“So I had to literally find out myself what is the optimal way to train.”

Recovery after a workout is an obvious lesson, Bernie said.

“It's very simple once you figure it out. I realized that I didn't get any better and got more tired because I didn't allow myself to recover,” he said. “I needed one complete day to recover.”

Stamm also discovered “my body and my brain are not in sync.” His brain, Bernie said, thinks he is 50 years old and his body gives a daily reality check that he over 80.

“Once I figured that one out then things started to improve again,” Stamm said. “The next problem is to make sure you don’t underestimate what your limits are. You have to find out how to get the most out of your body.”

The essence of Bernie’s workouts is to make sure his high jump marks stay in the world elite level. Stamm is currently ranked No. 1 in the world in the high jump (M85-89). Not bad for a guy 5-foot-6 when the optimal height of a high jumper is 6 feet, or better.

“You build up enormous explosiveness in your muscles with repetitions. It's not how much weight I can lift; it's how fast I can do it, and how many times,” Bernie said. “I do different leg exercises. I do a lot of squats with a weight in each hand.

“And, because the weakest part in most people's body is the core, I try and strengthen the core.”

The internet is an encyclopedia Stamm opens frequently. He is not afraid to challenge himself with physics, which is why he latched onto a high jump tutorial by a Japanese scientist. There is a video below and it helps explain how 87-year old Bernie can out-jump 79-year old Bernie.

There is something else that explains Bernie.

Carol, his wife of 27 years.

She goes to every meet and, Stamm says, “she is my best cheerleader.” Carol is also his nutritionist.

“She makes sure that I eat well. I mean, she is a stickler,” Bernie said. “She understands the proteins and all that stuff, and she is very, very supportive.”

Just check out this sequence of photographs captured brilliantly by Tyrone Turner of WAMU in Washington, D.C. That’s Carol, not his dutiful female coach with the shirt tuck from August 2, that Bernie rushes to kiss after tying the world record and vaulting to No. 1 in the world.

This is the essence of Masters Track & Field: fun.

Below, Bernie studied this and adopted it. It is fascinating to watch as Olympic Gold medalist Stefan Holm bounces off a stiff leg and the Japanese scientist duplicates it with a stick. If you are a Masters athlete, not just a high jumper, watch this please for the granular dissection of an event.