World’s oldest living person, Kane Tanaka, aged 118, is set to carry the Olympic torch this May in Japan

Kane Tanaka, who has survived cancer twice, lived through two global pandemics and loves fizzy drinks, will take the flame as it passes through Shime, in her home prefecture of Fukuoka.

Tanaka is as old as the modern Olympic Games, which began in 1896, and this year’s Olympics will be the 49th of her lifetime. Currently, she is living in a nursing home where she usually wakes at 6 am and enjoys playing the strategic board game, Othello. According to Tanaka’s family, it’s her curiosity towards math that keeps her mind and body healthy.

“It’s great she reached that age and she can still keep up an active lifestyle — we want other people to see that and feel inspired, and not to think age is a barrier,” said her grandson Eiji Tanaka, who is in his 60s to CNN.

Even though Tanaka has seen so much in life yet she never discusses her past. Eiji says, “I don’t remember her talking much about the past … She’s very forward-thinking — she really enjoys living in the present.”

For most of her 100-meter (about 328 feet) or so leg, the supercentenarian’s family will push her in a wheelchair, however, Tanaka is determined to walk the final few steps as she passes the torch to the next runner.