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As a child growing up in Ireland, Sinead Diver was always sporty, playing basketball and soccer. But it wasn’t until she moved to Australia at 25 to go backpacking with her now-husband that she started running – a sport she was first drawn to because it seemed like the cheapest way to get fit.
Years later, when Diver’s sister asked her to join in a corporate fun run, she realised she was quite good at running. Today, Melbourne-based Diver is one of three Australian female marathoners who have qualified for the 2024 Olympics, heading to Paris alongside Genevieve Gregson, 34, and Jess Stenson, 36.
“When I turned 38, I went to my first world champs,” says the now 47-year-old. “At the time, I thought that might be my last one, given the general view that once you’re in your 30s, you’re kind of past it athletically.”
Sinead Diver ahead of the 2023 Sydney Marathon.Credit: Brook Mitchell
What is obvious now, looking back on that time, is that Diver’s journey was just beginning. Along with her success came a rethinking of what she once assumed about women’s “peak” age and endurance running.
Kotryna Fraser, an exercise and sport science lecturer within the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney, says men and women can perform better at endurance sports in their 30s and 40s than in the decades earlier.
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“Sports are classified in different categories because they require a different type of effort and different types of energy systems,” says Fraser. “There’s a massive difference between endurance events and strength events. When you look at any strength event, both males and females peak at younger ages.”
While our strength declines as we age, making events that rely on power more difficult, endurance events such as marathons require sustained training. This training time can be easier to accumulate the older we are.
Fraser says that while being older doesn’t necessarily mean we will be better runners than we might have been in our youth, there is evidence to suggest that our mental resilience – an important skill in endurance events – could improve as we age and experience more significant life events, which help us fine-tune coping skills.