Discovering track late in life, Harper is a late bloomer

Shirley Harper, 61, grew up in Barbados. She played few sports as a girl, although she did play a game called netball, which she described as a 7-on-7 game similar to basketball but with a smaller ball and a net without a backboard. "That's the sum total of my sports as a young girl," she said with a laugh.

After playing the game in high school and college, Harper's involvement with organized sports ceased for more than three decades. She taught high school science and raised three children. "I live near the sea, so I do quite a bit of swimming," she said. "It's a good all-around exercise."

So when Harper stepped on the track at the age of 58 at a senior track meet in Barbados three years ago, she wasn't completely out of shape. "I went up to national games just to have fun, without training or anything," she said.

Harper performed well enough at the competition that a track coach named Anthony Lovell approached her. "'I don't know where you came from, out of the woodwork or something,'" Harper remembers Lovell saying. " 'You have potential.' "

Harper started training with Lovell (who also trains his wife, Ainsley Lovell, another Masters track star from Barbados). Harper loved the training and it paid off. In 2007, she traveled with the Barbados senior track team to the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah. That year she won four gold medals and a bronze in the women's 60-64 age group.

In 2008, she upped her gold medal total at the Games to six, winning the 50-meter dash (7.89 seconds), the 100-meter dash (14.57), the 200-meter dash (30.72), the 400-meter run (1:14.32), the long jump (11 feet, 9.5 inches), and the standing long jump (6 feet, 7.5 inches).