VIDEO: Jocelyn Lowther: Florida Masters Athlete Extraordinaire

By Maria Sonnenberg // April 27, 2015

SPACE COAST SPORTS HALL OF FAME

ABOVE VIDEO: When her 40s turned into 50, Jocelyn Lowther ran full blast into the Senior Games, never stopping her streak of continuing to break state records in the 500, 100, 200 and 400-meters and long jump.

JOCELYN LOWTHER – 2015 INDUCTEE

• USA Track and Field Champion
• USATF National Champion
• National Senior Games Champion

NATIONAL CHAMPION

Jocelyn Lowther, who never met a sports she didn’t like, long ago made a pact with herself that she would perform a no-handed – or aerial – cartwheel every year on her birthday until she turned 40, a milestone she believes mandated a more sedate approach to sports.

Well, the years came and went, as they tend to do, and when Lowther turned 40, she needed a new goal.

“A friend told me about master’s track and field,” said the Cocoa Beach attorney.

“On my 40th birthday, I entered my first master’s meet.”

To say she did well on her first foray into track and field is an understatement.

“That year, I set state records in the 100, 200 and 400-meter runs and placed in the top five in each event at the national championship in Eugene, Oregon,” she said.

Lowther, now 61, hasn’t stopped competing since.

She was named Florida Master’s Athlete of the Year and continues to hold a multitude of state records in the sprints and long jump in different five-year age groups.

Last year, Jocelyn Lowther headed to Duluth, Minnesota, for a rollerblading marathon. She was there to show support for her niece, a local medical school student who is fighting cancer. Sports provide Lowther with the opportunity to relax from the demands of her job as an attorney and mediator specializing in divorce, family law and adoptions. She is also a part-time traffic-hearing officer in charge of cases in Viera, Titusville and Melbourne courthouses. (Image for SpaceCoastDaily.com)

She was national champion in the USA Track and Field indoor meet in the 60-meter run 15 years ago, and is currently the USATF national champion in the 200 and 400 meters.

When her 40s turned into 50, Lowther ran full blast into the Senior Games, never stopping her streak of continuing to break state records in the 500, 100, 200 and 400-meters and long jump.

“I won the 200-meter last year at the National Senior Games and placed second in the long jump, 50 and 200-meter runs.”

The games, which feature a multitude of sports, allow Lowther to also try her skills at swimming, racquetball and table tennis. At age 43, Lowther also dove into surfing.

“I absolutely love it,” said Lowther, who annually participates in the National Kidney Foundation Surf Festival, the Waterman’s Challenge and the Sisters of the Sea surf competition.

NOT SLOWING DOWN

Last year, Lowther headed to Duluth, Minnesota, for a rollerblading marathon. She was there to show support for her niece, a local medical school student who is fighting cancer.

Sports provide Lowther with the opportunity to relax from the demands of her job as an attorney and mediator specializing in divorce, family law and adoptions. She is also a part-time traffic-hearing officer in charge of cases in Viera, Titusville and Melbourne courthouses.

Jocelyn Lowthe's love of sports, all sports, has always been part of her psyche as long as she can remember. As a kid growing up in Cocoa Beach, she loved participating in the Junior Olympics. (Image for SpaceCoastDaily.com) — Jocelyn Lowthe’s love of sports, all sports, has always been part of her psyche as long as she can remember. As a kid growing up in Cocoa Beach, she loved participating in the Junior Olympics. (Image for SpaceCoastDaily.com)

Her love of sports, all sports, has always been part of her psyche as long as she can remember. As a kid growing up in Cocoa Beach, she loved participating in the Junior Olympics.

“In elementary school, I could run faster than everyone on the playground, including the boys,” she said.

In the 1960s, when she happened upon a television show on gymnastics, she taught herself the routine.

“That’s when my parents decided, ‘we better get her in something.’”

Her parents enrolled her at Dussich Dance Studio, where she soon started teaching the younger students to earn pay for her lessons.

Teaching gymnastics for pocket money also beat waitressing while in college at Florida State and later at Santa Clara University law school in California. Lowther has no interest in slowing down.

“It’s important to play,” she said. “It’s a way of life for me.”