by Larry EderIrene Obera is an anomaly. She is running well at 81, and inspires another generation as well as reminds the constituency at USA Track & Field that the sport has many things to accomplish…Elliott Denman wrote this piece on the eighty one year old prodigy.
Irene Obera, photo courtesy of Masterstrack.com
By ELLIOTT DENMAN
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA – The salutes at USA Track and Field’s Annual Meeting weren’t limited to the
current greats (the likes of Meb Keflezighi, Jenny Simpson, Chantelle Price and Emma Coburn); such future greats as Myles Marshall (the
youth athlete of the year), or the once-greats (new National Track and Field Hall of Famers Lance Deal and Stacy Dragila,
and the late, great Ted Corbitt, Thomas Burke and Pat Ryan.)
There were plenty of cheers, too, for the formerly-great but-still-are great, too.
Ladies and gentlemen….put your hands together….let’s really hear it for…Irene Obera.
The 81-year-old Californian – birthday Dec. 7, 1933 – who was honored as USATF’s Masters Athlete of the Year,
Is surely one of the fittest octogenarians in the nation, or on the planet.
Ponder these credentials:
At the USATF Masters Outdoor National Championships, in Winston Salem, N.C., she set records (in world and American categories)
In the 200 meters (36.80, and yes, she still made it a dash); the 400-meters (1:39.92); 80-meter hurdles (19.77),
200-meter hurdles (42.24) and long jump (2.94 meters/ 7 feet, 7 ¾ inches.)
She’d used the 2014 Indoor Nationals as a terrific warmup for all those.
And all she did at those Indoor Nationals in Boston was take the 60-meter sprint in 10.37, the 200 in 36.53 and the
400 in 1:34.25 (the latter two actually faster than her outdoor times.) Yes, all these were world and American records, too.
Oh, she also found time to dabble in the shot put, heaving the iron ball a PR distance of
6.76 meters/ 22 feet, 2 ¼ inches, good for a silver medal.
“I held the lead until the real shot putters showed up,” she laughed.
No wonder the cheers rained down on her at the awards dinner in the festive California Ballroom
of the Anaheim Hilton Hotel.
“Periodization,” of course, is a well known training concept, in track and field theory. It’s simple,
just dedicate blocks of training time to specific goals, then go lower-key the rest of the time to
be ready for the occasions that count most.
But Irene Obera has taken the “periodization” process to a whole new level.
She’s been known to take whole years off between major competitions, then come roaring back better
than ever. And it seems she’s been doing this all her life.
“She’s doing all this right now in her early 80s, but, I don’t know, maybe we won’t see her again until she’s 85,” said
Jerry Donley, USATF Masters Executive Council member, North America regional coordinator, and past national Masters chairman.
“She doesn’t get very many injuries that way and that’s another key.
“Irene is so good she will set the standard that very few people will ever meet.”
And she does this all with grace and style.
To Donley, the best descriptive is “elegance.”
As to longevity, “I suspect that genes have a part in it, but she’s just a marvelous athlete,” said
Coloradoan Donley.
“Everything comes together. She is the smoothest runner I’ve ever seen.”
Now a resident of Fremont, California, Obera was born and raised in San Bernar
dino.
dino.
After graduation from San Bernardino High School and San Bernardino Valley Community College,
she went on to Chico State to earn a bachelor’s degee as a physical education major in 1957 take
various teaching and academic assignments.
She was a dean, an academic counselor and principal in the Berkeley Unified School district
until retiring in 1994.
Her track career goes way back….but not back to her high school or college days.
“I didn’t run high school or college track, not at all,” she said.
“They didn’t have many events for women in those days, anyway.
“The first time in my life I ever ran when I was 24 or 25, when they started having a few invitation events for women.”
Much thanks for those early opportunities go to people like Roxanne “Roxy” Anderson,
a former champion and women’s track pioneer.
“Roxanne was my coach and she used to get me invitations to those meets; thanks to her,
I was running all over the place,” said Obera.
“Still, there were never enough meets.
“That’s the way it was back then.”
Obera ran about six years in open meets, sometimes against people like Wilma Rudolph (the triple gold
medalist of the 1960 Olympic Games, the Hall of Famer considered the greatest women’s sprinter of
all time.)
“I was actually leading Wilma at Nationals in 1962, but then in only from here to there (maybe
10 meters), I went from first to fifth.
“Just like that, they all went by me. It was all over.”
It was more than awe.
People kidded her later, “it’s one thing to lose to somebody, it’s another thing to be paralyzed by them.”
Twice Obera ran the Olympic Trials, but failed to make the team.
“I got into the finals of the 100 in 1960, and then in 1968 I got to the semis.”
Once, when Ed Temple, the legendary coach of Rudolph and the Tennessee State Tigerbelles, was asked
which American rival Rudolph feared, his answer was Irene Obera.
“Yeah, I was watching you and checking your times,” said Temple.
But – like it was to many others who tried and simply couldn’t – there was never
any catching Wilma Rudolph.
Warm memories of the late, great Rudolph endure.
“Wilma was not only a great athlete, but she was a dear person, so sweet and humble, she truly was,”
said Obera.
“So sadly, she died early. What a great loss that was.”
Obera has taken sabbaticals from her academic duties and she’s used the same concept in her
track and field career.
“Retirement? That’s just a joke to me. I just take breaks.”
“Back in 1994, I said that was the last time I was retiring. I really meant it then, too.”
“But in 2005, they had the World Games in Spain, and Spain was one of the few places I hadn’t been to. I’ve traveled all
over the world. Everywhere, it seemed.
“Some friends were going to Spain, so I thought, maybe I ought to go over there to see them run.
” Then I thought, ‘well, if I’m going, maybe I ought to just hop in a race or two. So I did, I ran the 100 and 200, and
placed second in both of them, to a runner from New Zealand.
“That was Margaret Peters, oh, she was a really nice person.
“Afterward, I told her I was going to retire again and just play tennis.”
So what brought Irene Obera back in 2014?
Thanks to the prodding of Coach Alan Kolling, the old fun of it all returned. With fresh ideas,
fresh concepts and some fresh tests – such as the shot put and triple jump.
Her new outlook is actually an old one,
“I just want to have a fun year, try everything and enjoy them all,” she tells you.
“And in track and field, who ever knows what it’s going to bring?.
“My attitude has always been the same.”
