Football-loving nun ‘is world’s oldest living person’: From only just surviving childhood to hitting the age of 117… as she reveals the secret to longevity
Jeanne Calment
The certified oldest person ever was France’s Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at ages 122 and 164 days.
Her unparalleled longevity has been the subject of numerous studies, both before and after her death.
Jeanne enjoyed good health for most of her life and even took up fencing as a hobby at the age of 85.
The world’s oldest man ever was Jiroemon Kimura, from Japan, who died in 2013 at the age of 116 years and 54 days
Ms Calment also claimed to have met the artist Vincent van Gogh, to whom she sold canvases as a teenager in her father’s shop.
“He was ugly as hell, had a mean temper and smelled of booze,” she said.
She continued to smoke until she was 117 and rubbed olive oil into her skin.
Jiroemon Kimura
Japanese man Jiroemon Kimura, officially the oldest man who ever lived, died in 2013 at the age of 116.
On his 115th birthday, Mr. Kimura attributed his longevity to getting out in the sun.
‘I always look up at the sky. That’s how I am,” he said.
Kimura ate three meals a day of rice, pumpkins and sweet potatoes.
The world’s oldest man ever was Jiroemon Kimura, from Japan, who died in 2013 at the age of 116 years and 54 days
He reportedly did not smoke and said he only ate until he felt 80 percent full.
According to a city official, his motto in life was “eat light and live long.”
When he was born in 1897, Japan was nearing the end of its feudal period, which saw the last days of the Samurai warrior class and the birth of a modern imperialist state.
When Japan entered World War I on the side of the British in 1915, he was already 18 years old, and when the country joined Germany in 1940 at the beginning of World War II, he was already at 43 years old.
When the US dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, he was 48 years old, but at the end of the war he resumed his work as a postman and lived another 68 years.
Kane Tanaka
When Japanese woman Kane Tanaka died in 2022 at the age of 119, she was the oldest person in the world.
She was born in Japan’s southwestern Fukuoka region on January 2, 1903, the same year the Wright brothers first flew and Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.
When Japanese woman Kane Tanaka died in 2022 at the age of 119, she was the oldest person in the world
In her younger years, Ms. Tanaka ran several businesses, including a noodle shop and a rice cake shop.
A century ago, she married Hideo Tanaka in 1922, having four children and adopting a fifth.
She planned to use a wheelchair to participate in the torch relay for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, but the pandemic prevented her from doing so.
On her 119th birthday on January 2, 2022, Ms Tanaka’s relatives said she hoped to live to be 120 years old.
In her younger years, Ms. Tanaka ran several businesses, including a noodle shop and a rice cake shop
Sarah Knauss
American woman Sarah Knauss died on December 30, 1999, just two days before the new millennium.
The former seamstress, who loved chocolate, chips, popcorn and cashew nuts, left behind a 96-year-old daughter when she died.
American woman Sarah Knauss died on December 30, 1999, just two days before the new millennium. The former seamstress, who loved chocolate, chips, popcorn and cashew nuts, left behind a 96-year-old daughter when she died
Born on September 24, 1880, she died peacefully in her sleep in a nursing home in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Although frail in her later years, she continued to get up most mornings to eat breakfast in the dining room of her nursing home and also went to the hairdresser once a week.
On her 119th birthday, Mrs. Knauss’s great-great-grandson, then three years old, was present.