At last fall’s Lahti championship, Kotelko threw a javelin more than 6m farther than her nearest age-group rival. At the World Masters Games in Sydney, Kotelko’s time in the 100 meters — 23.95 seconds — was faster than that of some finalists in the 80-to-84-year category, 2 brackets down. World Masters Athletics, the governing body of masters track, uses “age-graded” tables developed by statisticians to create a kind of standard score, expressed as a %, for any athletic feat. The world record for any given event would theoretically be assigned 100%. But a number of Kotelko’s marks — in shot put, high jump, 100-meter dash — top 100%. (Because there are so few competitors over 90, age-graded scores are still guesswork.)

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