Nike’s latest installment of the Unlimited Campaign profiles an 86-year-old nun Sister Madonna Buder, who has competed in more than 40 Ironman races.
Sister Buder (The Iron Nun) completed her first Ironman World Championship triathlon in Hawaii in 1985, at the age 65. At 75, the American nun became the oldest woman to ever complete an Ironman triathlon. At 82, she set a world record as the oldest Ironman triathlon competitor.
Today, at 86 years old, she has completed more than 40 Ironman races, each comprising a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run.
Sister Buder’s introduction to sport came seven years before her first race in Hawaii, when she met a priest who thought of running as a way to harmonize the mind, body and soul. She took this creed to the extreme, burning out on the sport before discovering the variety of the triathlon. “That was the salvation,” she said. Her physical endurance she attributes to listening to her body and maintaining a positive mind set.
“You carry your attitude with you,” Sister Buder said in a Nike media release. “You either achieve or you self-destruct. If you think positively, you can even turn a negative into a positive.” Along with this spiritual guidance, she imparts simple, yet easily applicable performance advice to younger athletes: “One step at a time makes a marathon.”
The spot is by Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, and directed by Max Malkin at Prettybird.
Last week, Nike released an ‘Unlimited’ spot starring Chris Mosier, the first openly trans athlete to earn a spot on a U.S. national team. Mosier, a triathlete and duathlete, has qualified for the U.S. Men’s long-course duathlon.
See Nike’s video here
Behind the scenes of Unlimited Youth
See Nike’s Chris Mosier here
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