Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and a retired schoolteacher. She is a devoted gardener with an affection for bonsai trees. Hawkins took up competitive athletics for the first time at age seventy-five. She competed as a cyclist in the National Senior Games, winning bronze and gold medals. Twenty-five years later, she branched out, taking up running at age one hundred. Hawkins again competed in the National Senior Games at age 101, establishing the record for women one hundred and older in the hundred-yard dash at 39.62 seconds. She also competed in the
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