After Jennifer Lopez‘s most up-to-date revelation, the Latino-American singer, songwriter, actress and dancer may need to add “observe star” to her resume.
On Wednesday, Lopez joined as a visitor on Las Culturistas Podcast with comedians Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, the place they found she holds a really spectacular mile private finest from again in highschool.
“I began observe once I was in fifth or sixth grade,” Lopez advised the hosts, explaining that she targeted on middle-distance occasions: the 800m, 1,500m and the mile. “My finest mile ever was 4:49–I used to be for actual.”
“There have been occasions in my life the place I assumed I’d take the athlete [route],” she added, saying she additionally excelled in tennis and softball. “I used to be an athlete–like a little bit tomboy jock individual.”
In 2015, as a part of the #throwbackthursday development, Lopez reportedly shared a black-and-white {photograph} of herself working observe at Preston Excessive Faculty within the Bronx, N.Y., the place she grew up.
A what-if state of affairs
The tidbit sparks a enjoyable what-if: if Lopez had pursued athletics as an alternative of leisure, might she have achieved the identical form of stardom on the observe?
A 4:49 mile in highschool would at present rank Lopez 247th on the worldwide all-time record for U20 ladies. Again within the mid-Eighties–across the time when the now 56-year-old was competing in highschool–her private finest would have stood out much more. Lopez clearly had collegiate-level velocity, and maybe even the expertise to chase an expert observe profession, had she stayed within the sport.
Is it plausible?
It’s not the primary time a celeb has claimed to have achieved a powerful athletic feat. In 2020, pop star Britney Spears, famously mentioned she ran 100 metres in 5.97 seconds–three and a half seconds sooner than Usain Bolt’s world document of 9.58. In comparison with that, Lopez’s sub-five-minute mile could be very believable.