79-year-old Downhill Racer Is Unstoppable

Most retirees return from trips to the Alps with commemorative coffee mugs and bottles of schnapps. Not 79-year-old Lilla Gidlow. She returned from Innsbruck, Austria with two downhill skiing medals from the Winter World Masters. Masters is a branch of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard team that provides older adults the opportunity to race. It’s genuine ski racing on FIS-approved courses and according to their website it’s “the perfect combination of sport, adrenaline, and spandex.” If that alone doesn't make you quit your shuffleboard team, I'm not sure what will.

Gidlow didn’t just win a gold in the slalom and bronze in GS from any old Masters race, she won two medals at what’s considered the Olympics of Masters racing. In addition to decimating the field, she was the oldest woman racing. Gidlow is revered back at her home of Minnetonka Beach, Minnesota as a local legend. She’s been diligently training at Buck Hill—aka the original ski hill of Lindsey Vonn—for the last 30 years and racing in the Masters league since the early '90s. The catalyst for her ski racing career came after getting a tumor removed from her spinal cord about 20 years ago. It was a wake-up having to relearn how to walk and ski again, and clearly she hasn't slowed down since.
When asked what kept her going now she jokingly responded, “I guess I don't know how to sit very well.” I definitely want to be like Gidlow when I grow up.