At 118 years old, the world's oldest living person is preparing to carry the Olympic torch this May in Japan.
Kane
Tanaka, who has twice survived cancer, lived through two global pandemics and
loves fizzy drinks, will take the flame as it passes through Shime, in her home
prefecture of Fukuoka.
While
Tanaka's family will push her in a wheelchair for most of her 100-meter leg,
the supercentenarian is determined to walk the final few steps, as she passes
the torch to the next runner.
Previous
record holders for the oldest Olympic torchbearers include Aida Gemanque of
Brazil, who lit the torch at the 2016 Rio Summer Games age 106, and table
tennis player Alexander Kaptarenko, who ran with the torch at the 2014 Sochi
Winter Games at 101 years old.
Tanaka was
born in 1903 -- the year aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur
Wright made history by completing the world's first powered flight.
She went on
to have four children with the rice shop owner she married at 19 years old, and
worked in the family store until she was 103. She has five grandchildren and
eight great-grandchildren.
She lived
through two world wars and the 1918 Spanish flu, although her grandson Eiji
said: "I don't remember her talking much about the past ... She's very
forward thinking -- she really enjoys living in the present."
And she is
almost as old as the modern Olympic Games, which began in 1896.
Tanaka is
by no means Japan's only centenarian.
For the
first time last year, Japan recorded more than 80,000 centenarians,
according to the country's Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry -- marking the
50th consecutive annual increase.
In 2020,
one in every 1,565 people in Japan was over 100 years old -- more than 88% of
them women.
In Japan,
women have a life expectancy of 87.45 years compared to 81.4 for men,
government figures released in July 2020 showed.
In 2019
the Guinness Book of World Records certified Tanaka as the world's oldest
living person, and now she has her sights on another milestone -- the record
for the oldest person to ever live is held by a French woman, who died age 122.
She wants to break that record.
The
pandemic-delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay starts in Fukushima prefecture
on March 25.
The torch
will first go through regions affected by the devastating 2011 Tohoku
earthquake and tsunami, marking the disaster's 10th anniversary, before
traveling "around every corner of Japan," officials said.
Those who
wish to view the relay from the roadside must wear masks.
Spectators should
support with applause, rather than by shouting or cheering.
From CNN (edited)
