History is about to unfold again as the world’s oldest living person is preparing to carry the Olympic torch this May in Japan.
Kane Tanaka 118, is the oldest living human being according to the Guinness book of records and recently celebrated her birthday.
She has twice survived cancer, lived through two global pandemics. She loves fizzy drinks like Coca Cola and seafood. Kane will take the flame as it passes through Shime in her home in Fukuoka.
According to CNN Tanaka can still keep up with an active lifestyle despite her age. She has already received a new pair of sneakers for the event- a gift from her family on her birthday in January.
"It's great she reached that age and she can still keep up an active lifestyle -- we want other people to see that and feel inspired, and not to think age is a barrier," said her grandson Eiji Tanaka, who is in his 60s.
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 and had four children after getting married at the age of 19. She has five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
She however doesn’t talk much about her past despite living through two world wars, the 1918 Spanish flu and now the Corona pandemic.
Tanaka now lives in a nursing home and her family hasn’t visited her for 18 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2019, the Guinness Book of World Records certified Tanaka as the world's oldest living person, the record for the oldest person to ever live is held by a French woman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122.