Betty Brussel took up competitive swimming at in her mid-sixties. Now 99, she’s won hundreds of medals - and just broke three world records in her age group.
“When I swim, I feel so happy,” said Brussel, who lives in British Columbia. “It’s the most relaxing feeling to just glide through the water.”
Last weekend, she broke the world record in her age group for the 400-meter freestyle - she swam it in 12 minutes and 50 seconds - beating the previous record-holder by nearly four minutes. Brussel competes in the 100-to-104 age category, as categories are determined by birth year.
She also set a new record for the 50-meter breaststroke, which she did in one minute and 52 seconds, and the 50-meter backstroke, which took her one minute and 24 seconds.
But… 99 isn’t in the 100 plus age group. 🤔
The article shows that the lists are made via birth date, not chronological age
Kinda like how I was let into Kindergarten (5+) at age 4, though we didn’t have any old-lady races :(
You made that sound really goofy by saying birth date.
They go by year born and not date born. So right now for instance, you’re at 100 years if you were born in 1924, regardless of if you’ve had your birthday yet.
What is this world coming to that we can’t race our grandmothers down the street anymore.
From the article:
Yeah, they fucked up naming categories if a 99 year old now owns the 100+ records.
Even though the summary makes it clear, the summary being necessary is a failure of naming.
Regardless of the reasons for competition, I now want to know who over 100 has the fastest time and it’s not this person.
Everyone came here wondering the same thing. You’re the only person who commented without reading the summary.