Jeannie Rice

Jeannie Rice (born April 14, 1948) is an American runner, known for her short finish times at an advanced age. She holds multiple marathon world records in her age division. Her unusually robust physiology has drawn the attention of medical researchers, who found that she had the highest VO2 max for a woman 75 or above ever recorded.

Early life Rice was born on April 14, 1948, in South Korea. She immigrated to Mentor, Ohio when she was 18 She has since semi-retired.

Running Rice began running at age 35 to lose weight gained on a vacation back in her native South Korea. She was inspired to take up marathon running in particular by Joan Benoit's gold medal performance at the 1984 Olympics. She began with the Cleveland Marathon in 1983, running a 3:45.

In 2016, she estimated that she had run 1,000 races. In 2023, she became a World Marathon Majors six-star finisher. She had completed 134 marathons by 2025,

In a 2025 study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, her VO2 max was recorded at 47.8, the highest ever recorded for a woman aged 75 or older, and her max heart rate at 180 beats per minute. For reference, such a VO2 max is average for a 25-year-old woman. The study also noted that with times of 3:24:48 and 3:33:27, Rice holds world records for the marathon in the W70 marathon world record progression 70-74 and W75 marathon world record progression 75-79 year women age group categories. Conversely, her running economy was found to be unremarkable.