LYNDHURST, Ohio — Over the summer, we introduced you to Diane Friedman, a Lyndhurst resident who at 100 years old holds multiple world records in track and field.
Those world records are a pretty big deal, and since we last talked, she's added a few more to her resume.
"We went up to Michigan for the Michigan Senior Games and she broke the world record for the 100 -meter dash for women over 100 by 3 seconds," her coach Bruce Sherman told us. "Then she set a very, very respectable world record in the 200, and just for fun, [in] her favorite event, she set an American record in the javelin."
But as Bruce explained, Diane is now facing some competition from another centenarian athlete: Julia "Hurricane" Hawkins, from Louisiana, who at 105 years old has a few years on Friedman.
"Respectfully, Diane would outrun her significantly in the 100-meter," Sherman said.
We learned from Bruce that this newfound competition even spurred a new nickname.
"Right on the spot, I said, 'Okay, she's so fast, she is Diane "Flash" Friedman.'"
But, it turns out, "Flash" doesn't care so much about being No. 1.
"I just don't think about all that, you know?" Diane told us with her trademark dry sense of humor. "So I was good. So what?"
But Diane does love staying active, and in order to keep up with her training during the cold Cleveland months, Bruce and Diane have to get creative in her apartment building's fitness room.
"[It's] a really nice place to work out with treadmills, ellipticals, [a] full set of weights," Sherman said. "Nice, fun things to do."
"He tells me how much to do," Friedman added. "'Get out, get off, get out and get off,' you know, that kind of thing. So that's the way I do it because I got a good boss. He doesn't pay me, but I got a good boss."
Diane does have a winning attitude, and we're proud to say this champion athlete calls Cleveland home. So, we thought it would be fun to help her add yet another record to her long list of accomplishments.
According to our (limited) research, there is no current record for the furthest thrown snowball by an athlete over 100, and despite Diane letting us know she doesn't really love snow, she was willing to give it a shot.
It's true that an apartment building complex parking lot in Cleveland is a world away from Beijing, where Diane's fellow champions were trying to set their own records in a more auspicious setting. But the Olympic spirit has no jurisdiction, and history is often made in the humblest of places.
And with one beautiful throw, she had done it. At 20 feet, Diane's record snowball toss might not be officially recognized (since we made it up), but she doesn't compete for the laurels anyway — because for her, it's all about feeling good and a love of the game.