Apologies if you woke up this morning and hoped for a day in which you didn’t feel lame. Because this isn’t going to help: Klaus Obermeyer just turned 100, and he has been celebrating the way a ski legend should, with a daily half-mile swim, long stints in the gym and, of course, skiing.

Warned you.

You probably know the Obermeyer name from ski clothing that’s still popular on the hill—but maybe less so as a raft of manufacturers have started crowding the high-end market that Klaus basically invented back in the late-40s. Depending on who you read/talk to, he’s also responsible for the two-part ski boot, the two-prong ski brake and high-altitude sunscreen. And more. An aeronautical engineer by training, Obermeyer came to the U.S. in 1947 and soon landed in Aspen, where he worked as a ski instructor when the resort was decidedly less posh. And less…technical. Post-war ski togs, he explained to Outside Online, were better suited to a car trip to the mall: “We’d ride up the single-chair lift wearing long city coats to try to stay warm, then send them back down on the chairs and ski down in our suit jackets. It was cold and people were uncomfortable.”

There was an obvious need for improvement, so Obermeyer borrowed $10,000 from a potato farmer and created a skiwear empire.

By his own account, he started as a relentless optimist with a questing spirit, always looking for ways to make things better and learn from setbacks. Flash forward to today and he still fits that profile. The Aspen Times asked if he ever had a day where he didn’t feel like exercising or skiing. His response: “No. That is against my philosophy; it is to stay No. 1 (to) keep your body and your spirit healthy by using them. To be lazy and say, ‘I’m not going to do it today,’ I don’t think that’s right. You’re cheating yourself. That’s something you just don’t do.”

What you do do is stay busy and fit. He skied daily until well into his 90s, and still is a regular in the pool and on cardio equipment. He also practices aikido. And that physical activity informs his attitude: “Sport makes life sweet.  You get in good shape, you feel good about your body and your spirit, and you enjoy life, so it’s easy to look at things positively.”

This…and luck…is how you hit 100 with a love of the world and your place in it.

Image: Klaus Obermeyer, a few years ago, courtesy of Sport Obermeyer.