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 :(
From the article:
Brussel competes in the 100-to-104 age category, as categories are determined by birth year.
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.
Close enough.
We’re concerned about trans athletes when we have 99 year olds here playing in the 100+ age group?
This seems far more egregious of an advantage to have over the field.
This is technically true for every U team in every sport.
Not to take away from a 99-year-old still competing athletically, which is impressive obviously, but I’m always amused with these stories about 114-year-old man sets record for fastest time doing 100-meter-hurdles in the over-110s category. New record time is 12 hours, 3 minutes and 2 seconds.
They had to take a nap at 50m
100 plus negative 1.
Damn. Good for her.
Very impressive. Good for Betty.
