Sy Mah

Thian K. "Sy" Mah (August 2, 1926 – November 7, 1988) was an assistant professor of physical education at the University of Toledo and a Canadian long-distance runner who held a Guinness World Records mark for the most lifetime marathons.

Early life, education, and career The son of a Chinese immigrant family, Mah was born in Bashaw, Alberta in 1926. English was his native language and he did not speak Mandarin, but he was able to write his Chinese name.

Mah joined the Chinese Association of Greater Toledo in 1970 and later served as its program director. That club was considered one of the best in North America and Wilton was one of its star athletes. Wilton ran the first three laps of the five lap course with Mah and she went on to finish in a time of 3:15:23, a performance recognized as a world best by the International Association of Athletics Federations. |group="nb" Invited by Mah, Kathrine Switzer also ran that day – only sixteen days after her historic run at the Boston Marathon. By 1977, he completed his 100th marathon there with a 3:18:18 performance. At least one race director scheduled back-to-back marathons on Saturday and Sunday to help him add to his totals. Mah ran the Boston Marathon twenty times and was a regular participant in ultramarathons and triathlons as well as cross-country skiing and canoe races. Although he did not finish the event, he was publicly honored by the Greeks for "his love of competition".

Mah's last race was a 50 kilometer event Labour Day weekend, 1988, in St. Jacobs, Ontario; he dropped out of the Toronto Marathon three weeks later. Joe Henderson wrote an editorial in tribute to Mah in 1989. According to Henderson, Mah stated: "I believe Americans have been brainwashed with the idea that they must do less because increased age will result in less energy and diminished capacity. I have found this is simply not true if a person does not allow his mind to accept the traditional view of aging."

The Sy Mah Memorial Scholarship at the University of Toledo was established in 1990 by Mah's friend and family. The statue was created by Thomas Lingeman, a Professor of Art at the University of Toledo, who was commissioned by the Toledo Road Runners Club. The wood-carved trophy is shaped to resemble an hourglass symbolizing Mah's "balance and steadiness".

Mah's papers are held at the Ward M. Canaday Center at the University of Toledo.