On June 6, 2017, at age 101, Julia Hawkins set a new world record for the 100-meter dash in her age bracket. Her gold-medal victory at the National Senior Games is a testament to the competitive spirit Julia has nourished over her entire life. This was her first-ever 100-meter dash. In fact, Julia had just taken up running a year before – when she was 100.

Julia’s always been active and she’s always loved competition, but after her high school basketball years, life intervened in countless beautiful ways to make her more a spectator of sports than a player. It wasn’t until her late 70s that she returned to competition: bicycling. She took bronze in her first national competition, but said that after that, she won all gold medals for bicycling.

How does she do it? Beyond staying in shape by living a healthy lifestyle and exercising regularly, Julia keeps herself mentally in shape through reading. But over the course of a life that started during World War I and witnessed so many momentous events, from the catastrophic to the miraculous – events that most people today only know through history class or online searches – Julia came to understand that it’s not the things you do that keep you going; it’s how you do them, how you approach them. Julia believes that people should have passions in their lives – things to believe in, things to keep them alert and active. Whether Julia’s preparing a speech, pruning her bonsai trees, chronicling a century of lived history by writing memoires, or breaking records by outrunning people a decade younger than she, Julia exudes an energy that comes not just from determination, but from a deep-rooted passion.

Julia’s zest for life and its magic moments makes her the champion she is today.

Julia Hawkins … Peoples Health Champion.