Most people slow down after retirement. Juan López García hit the gas.
The car mechanic from Toledo, Spain, didn’t lace up his running shoes until he stopped working at 66 — and back then, he could barely manage a mile.
Now 82, López García is a world-record-holding ultramarathoner and the subject of a new study trying to figure out how he stayed so fit into his golden years.
A group of European scientists put him through a battery of tests and found that his extraordinary performance can largely be explained by three factors.
First, López García’s VO₂ max, the gold standard measure of the oxygen you can take in and use, is the highest ever recorded in an octogenarian.
Normally, VO₂ max drops by about 10% every decade after the age of 30. But the retiree’s has climbed since he started training.
In fact, it is the kind of number experts would expect from a healthy man in his 20s.
Testing also revealed that López García’s muscles can extract and use a very large percentage of the oxygen available in his blood, helping power him to run for long periods at a steady pace.
That kind of endurance is essential for ultramarathoners, who compete in races that can reach 100 miles or more.
It’s clearly helping López García on the trail. He holds the world record in the 80 to 84 age group for the 31-mile ultramarathon.
In 2024, he also won the world marathon championship for his age group, finishing in 3:39:10 and setting a European record along the way
López García’s maximal fat oxidation, which is the peak rate at which the body burns fat for fuel, likely also helped. Researchers found it was 0.55 grams per minute, similar to that of fit younger athletes.
While most people start using fat for fuel at moderate intensity, or about 45% to 65% of their VO₂ max, López García started burning fat at about 77%, signaling more efficient fuel use.
Researchers also found that López García has a healthy body mass index and a large proportion of lean body mass for his age and size.
He also has high levels of hemoglobin, the iron-rich protein in red blood cells that transports oxygen from the lungs to the body’s tissues and returns carbon dioxide.
The study authors wrote that the unique data collected from this octogenarian elite athlete underscore how endurance training late in life can delay physiological changes associated with aging.
Despite these eye-popping biometrics, the Spaniard isn’t superhuman.
López García had other measurements that were strong for his age but not extraordinary, like his lactate threshold, which is the maximum intensity a runner can maintain before lactic acid builds up and causes rapid fatigue.
His running economy was also not exceptional, meaning the amount of oxygen his body uses to run at a given pace was not unusually efficient.
The researchers acknowledged that age-related performance decline is inevitable, largely due to reductions in VO₂ max and decreases in skeletal muscle mass and function.
However, they noted that regular physical activity may serve as an effective countermeasure against some of the negative effects of aging.
“The present findings reinforce the concept that maintaining high exercise capacity in advanced age supports the preservation of VO₂ max, a key predictor of all-cause mortality,” the study authors wrote.
When López García started exercising regularly, he told The Washington Post he only wanted to “run a little to maintain my health,” and he never expected to reach the level he’s at today.
Now, he trains with a coach, running about 40 miles in a typical week with intervals of sprints mixed in. When preparing for a race, he nearly doubles that mileage.
López García also strength trains a few times a week and follows a “totally normal” Mediterranean-style diet at home.
And he has no plans to hang up his sneakers.
“I remember my grandparents. At this age, they were like little old people,” López García said. “Today, I do not feel old.”
