Florence Storch, who won javelin medal at 101, dies

HANNA, ALTA.—A feisty Alberta centenarian who made headlines for competing in javelin events has died.

Florence Storch was 102.

An obituary says she died Wednesday in Hanna, Alta., where she had lived in a seniors lodge.

Storch said in interviews that she accidentally got into javelin in her 90s, while helping organize the Canada 55-Plus Games in her hometown. When she noticed that no one had signed up for the sport, she put her name on the list.

She won many medals and for several years was the oldest athlete at the Games.

She continued competing even after her 100th birthday, although she had to grip a walker with one hand while throwing the javelin with the other.

At the 2014 Games held near Edmonton, a 101-year-old Storch captured a silver medal. She was one of only two women in the over-85 age category that year and was bested by a more mobile 87-year-old.

Surrounded by news cameras, the white-haired wonder said she didn’t want a big fuss and was just happy to be out on the field.

“Better than sitting in my room doing nothing.”

Storch was a teacher in a rural schoolhouse, where she often participated in sports with her students, and later became a farm wife and raised three boys.

A funeral service is planned for Nov. 1 in Hanna.