Kathy Bergen (born December 24, 1939) is an American Masters athletics track and field athlete. She is the current world record holder in the W70 100 metres and the high jump.[1] She also holds the Indoor World records for the W65 high jump, the W70 60 metres, 200 metres and high jump.[2] And she holds the American record for the W70 200 metres[3] and the W65 high jump.[4] She is the oldest woman to break the 15 second barrier in the 100 metres.[5] She is also the first 70 year old woman to jump 1.30 meters in the high jump at USATF Masters Championships in Sacramento in 2010.
54 and a half years of age is not the normal time for someone to become an athlete. Even amongst senior athletes, where groups correspond with ages evenly divisible by 5, that would be disadvantageous. But the mother of five was not approaching the sport with high aspirations. Her only previous athletic pursuits was two years of high school basketball and doubles tennis with her husband Bert. She has also played on competitive tennis teams at the 4.0 level. It was chasing the ball in those tennis games that her husband noticed she was rather quick. Both of them went to the Pasadena Senior Olympics in 1994, where her relative speed vs other people in her age group showed up. By the end of 1996, she already held the W55 American record in the high jump.[6] That's when she got serious. She now has a professional coach, who is used to working with athletes more than 50 years her junior.[7]
"She hasn't reached her peak yet, I definitely think we can break the records she already set."—Eric Dixon, Bergen's coach
In 2010, she set the W70 world record before an audience of thousands at the Mt. SAC Relays.[5]