At 99, She Gains World Records and 'Confidence' in the Pool

'I'm even starting to feel a bit proud of myself,' says Canada's Betty Brussel
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 24, 2024 9:08 AM CST

Betty Brussel learned to swim in the canals of Amsterdam, where she grew up during the Great Depression. But it wasn't until her mid-60s, after she moved to Canada with her husband and raised three children, that she took up competitive swimming. Three decades later, the 99-year-old has become "an unlikely celebrity within the amateur swim community," having just clinched three world records, the Guardian reports. At a swim meet Saturday in her home province of British Columbia, she swam the 400-meter freestyle in 12 minutes and 50.3 seconds, knocking nearly four minutes off the previous record in the 100-104 age class, in which she qualifies by her 1924 birth year, while also setting records in the 50-meter backstroke and 50-meter breaststroke, per the Globe and Mail.

"With so few swimmers in her age group, Brussel is nearly always assured a record each time she enters the pool," per the Guardian. "In some races, no one her age has ever raced the distance." Her coach, Linda Stanley Wilson, president of the White Rock Wave Swim Club, says Brussel's energy serves as an inspiration to fellow club members. And perhaps her humility as well. "What can I say? I'm a bit lazy," Brussel says of her training regime, which involves swimming twice a week consistently. Hannah Walsh, a former competitive swimmer who's working on a documentary about Brussel, says she was stunned to learn the 99-year-old swam up to 1,500 meters in a training session and competed in five events at Saturday's meet. "I'd be exhausted," the 26-year-old tells the Globe and Mail.

"It just makes me feel very good," Brussel tells the Guardian, adding swimming is a passion that allows her to "forget all my worries." "I don't even think about the records," she continues. "I just do the best I can." Stanley Wilson says she mainly focuses on ensuring Brussel isn't "doing anything biomechanically counter-productive or that she might sustain an injury from." Though she suffered a heart attack 25 years ago and wears a pacemaker, Brussel says she's "really very fortunate" in that she's able to live alone and takes no medicine, per the Globe and Mail. "I don't really feel old—only when I'm really tired," she tells the Guardian. "I'm actually a bit shy, and so I get confidence from the water," she adds. "But with all of this focus and these records, I'm even starting to feel a bit proud of myself, too." (More uplifting news stories.)

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