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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Madeleine Aggeler

‘Old people are capable of more’: meet the female weightlifters in their 70s and 80s

An illustration of an older woman lighting weights.


Joan MacDonald is an influencer. There’s no other word for it, though she winces a little when she says it. But she is an influencer, and an extremely successful one. The fitness maven has been on the covers of magazines such as Women’s Health, modeled as part of lucrative brand deals and launched her own fitness app, Train With Joan. On Instagram, where she has more than 2 million followers, she shares pictures of herself posing in bikinis in picturesque locales and training at the gym in color-coordinated workout sets.

But there’s one small difference between MacDonald and many other social media starlets. She is 79.

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