Meet the 82-year-old ‘firecracker’ who refuses to let age hold her back

At the age of three, V Kittammal carried sacks of grain from the farm to her house in Amaravathi in Tiruppur district. She jumped at any chore that required intense physical labour, and didn’t stop until she completed the task successfully. 

Born among nine children and one of the four daughters in the house, Kittammal loved rising to any feat of strength and proving she was the strongest of all. “I was always jumping around. My father joked that I made up for not having another son,” she recalls.

Life then brought with it an onslaught of challenges over the years, including grinding poverty, an early marriage and motherhood, and later, the devastating loss of all her brothers, but Kittammal says she remains the ‘firecracker’ she was—“one of the things about life that has remained and stood the test of time”, she says.

At 82, Kittammal is expending all this ‘firecracker’ energy in a way no one her age would dare do: deadlifting.

With the hobby she picked up from her fitness-obsessed grandsons less than two years ago, Kittammal is bending her body’s timeline to her will. She started with 10kg weights, went on to 20, 30, and in her maiden competition last year, alongside 17 athletes all under 30, she executed a deadlift of 50 kg, earning the fifth-place.

Last year, she took part in the Strong Man of South India powerlifting contest in Kuniyamuthur in Tamil Nadu. In the open women’s category, she competed alongside 17 others, most of them several decades younger.

“It all started with me badgering my grandsons—Rohith (16) and Rithik (23)— until they took me to the gym with them. There, the trainer asked me how old I was. I said I’m 82. He said, ‘Great! Let’s get you some weights!’” 

Rithik, a national-level gold medallist, introduced her to formal gym training in Palladam. Under his guidance, she mastered the deadlift technique within a month. 

Kittammal says she was enthusiastic about strength training and weightlifting from the first day. “I grew up on a diet of millets and fresh vegetables my whole life. I have years of intense domestic labour, fetching buckets of water every day on my hip. These weights were easy,” she says. 

She emphasises the undeniable role of a simple, traditional South Indian diet as the source of her strength. Millet porridge, moringa soup, boiled vegetables, eggs, and multigrain porridge make up her daily meals.

News of her achievements spread widely after industrialist Anand Mahindra highlighted her story online, describing her as ‘an 82-year-old woman lifting not just weights but our spirits.’ The post drew thousands of responses from people moved by her discipline and resolve.

“I want no one to ever think of age as a meter of strength and confidence. I hope you spread my story far and wide so that more seniors hear this message and live life on their own terms,” she says.