Emma Mazzenga isn’t your typical 92-year-old. She’s a world-record-holding sprinter, still lacing up her spikes and flying down the track.

The Italian runner shot to international attention in 2024 when she shattered the 200-metre world indoor record for the over-90 age group, clocking in at 54.47 seconds. This June, she set a personal best of 50.34. “I just like the competition,” Mazzenga told CNN Sports. “And even now, maybe a little less than in the past, I still feel tense before each race.”

Her story has drawn interest not just from sports fans but from scientists eager to understand how someone her age continues to perform at such a high level.

Mazzenga wasn’t always an elite athlete. As a teenager, she played basketball and later competed in university athletics. But after graduating, life took over. She married in 1963 and spent the next 25 years focused on work and raising a family, putting competitive sports aside.

It wasn’t until 1986, at age 53, that she returned to training. Since then, she’s been remarkably consistent, working with a coach and training three times a week. “Initially, a couple of hours, now one hour a day,” she said.

Inside her Padova apartment, the walls are lined with medals from decades of Masters competitions. One of her favourites is from Sacramento in 2011, where she won the 400-metre W75 race — her first world title.

She doesn’t follow a strict diet. Breakfast is often a ham or salami sandwich. Lunch includes a modest portion of pasta — 30 or 40 grams — followed by meat or fish and vegetables. Dinner is usually light. She enjoys a daily glass of red wine, walks to the market, reads in the afternoon, and frequents a nearby cinema. “At five in the morning, I’m awake,” she said. “I never stay a whole day in the house unless the weather prevents me from going out.”

That daily movement, she believes, is key. “This is important. This is how it should be continued. And above all – do not isolate yourself,” she said.

Her remarkable physical condition caught the attention of Simone Porcelli, a physiology professor at the University of Pavia, who invited her to participate in the TRAJECTORAGE Project — a long-term study tracking the decline of neuromuscular function in healthy adults over 60.

Led by researchers from several Italian institutions and supported by international partners in the US and Spain, the study is trying to pinpoint when and how age-related physical decline begins, and what role exercise might play in slowing it down.

Martino Franchi, one of the scientists leading the project from the University of Padova, said the team was especially interested in Mazzenga’s resilience. “As we age, we get slower… So what we want to understand with this study is: is there a point in our life where things start to go downhill?”

Mazzenga, the oldest and most active participant in the study, has become the team’s “cherry on the cake.” Her physiological data offers a rare glimpse into what’s possible late in life. When researchers tested her 18 months ago, they found her cardiorespiratory fitness matched that of someone in their 50s. Even more astonishing, the mitochondrial function in her muscles — the parts responsible for producing energy — was comparable to a healthy 20-year-old.

This month, Mazzenga returned to the lab for another full day of testing. Scientists took a muscle sample from her quadriceps to examine cell structure, blood supply, and energy production. She underwent cardiovascular stress tests, ultrasounds, and evaluations of leg strength and oxygen efficiency.

She had aged, as expected. But compared to the average 92-year-old, the decline was minimal. That’s exactly what the researchers are trying to unpack.

“(Mazzenga) will give us a reference point that we will use as a comparison to look back… and understand if the same traits that we see on Emma can be found on some people,” said Franchi. “And if those are related to either, you know, like somebody that found the Fountain of Youth… or if this is related to exercise and physical activity.”

Mazzenga remains modest. She continues training three times a week, but says movement is more than just a routine — it’s a mindset. She avoids isolation by attending local community groups, reading, and staying socially active. “We meet with different topics, we read some books… so that we can find each other. It is very, very, very important.”

She may not have found the Fountain of Youth. But in her case, the science of aging is running to catch up.