Age is just a number—that is how the saying goes. However, for most, age does catch up with us at some point. We all start to move a little slower, get out of bed in the morning a little slower, and sometimes even take us longer to do things a little longer. This seems not to be the case for Ingemar Stenmark, the Swedish Alpine skiing legend, who is still doing things that most could not do in their youth.
Ingemar Stenmark is 68 years old, retired with 86 World Cup victories, and is still competing, but not on the slopes. He is out on the track and field circuit competing in pole vaulting. The Swedish sporting legend, who won two Winter Olympic golds in his career, took part in the World Masters Athletics Championship, clearing six feet. Stenmark also won five world alpine ski gold medals in slalom and giant slalom, he finished eighth in Final A of the men’s 65-69 age category. He posted a video of himself clearing a home-made pole vault on Instagram last week, along with the caption: “The gym was busy.”
Stenmark retired from Alpine World Cup skiing in 1989, but his record of 86 career World Cup victories stood until March 2023, when American Mikaela Shiffrin broke it. He still holds the record for the biggest win margin in a World Cup alpine race, winning by 4.06 seconds in 1979. In a classy move, Stenmark paid tribute to Shiffrin after she beat his record. “She’s much better than I was. You cannot compare. She has everything … she can ski well both in slalom and in super-G and downhill also. I could never have been so good in all disciplines,” Stenmark said.
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