Russian man, 101, is oldest Olympic relay torchbearer

Aleksander Kaptarenko trained for the Olympic torch relay by carrying a frozen salmon.

Kaptarenko, a 101-year-old table tennis player, became the oldest Olympic relay torchbearer on Saturday, according to R-Sport.

He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1912 and carried an Olympic torch in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk for 200 meters. Kaptarenko has competed in table tennis for decades, most recently at a European veterans championship last year, according to the report.

How does he stay fit? Here’s what he said, translated by Sochi Olympic organizers:

Three times a week in the morning I go to the Metallurg gym and play table tennis. An hour and a half is enough for me. I sleep about 8 hours a day. I go to bed at 12, and wake up at 6 in the morning. After lunch, I try to sleep for another 1.5-2 hours. Food. For breakfast, I have freshly ground organic coffee with sugar and chicory, and a cheese smoked sausage sandwich. I don’t do vegetarianism. For lunch, I have soup and salad, and like sauerkraut. I have dinner at about 7pm. I drink tea with milk. Before going to bed, I sometimes eat an apple or a banana. I don’t smoke. I began to do that in the army, and even then it was not for long. In my youth, my weight was 64kg, and now it is 68kg. But I was brawny then, and was called “ox”.

The oldest 2012 Olympic relay member was Dinah Gould, who was 100.

The Olympic torch relay will make an unofficial visit to the U.S. Naval Academy on Wednesday (while the official portion still goes through Russia), according to reports.

The Olympic torch relay visited polar bears at a zoo Friday.

It was carried on a snow plow on Tuesday:

AP

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