The very elderly Betty Brussel learned to swim in the canals of Amsterdam, the city where she was born in 1924. In 1959 she moved to Canada with her husband Gerrit, where they raised their three children. Only when she was over 60 did she start swimming competitively.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” Brussels says about the start of her sporting career to the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’. But Brussels immediately enjoyed swimming and continued to do so in the years that followed. And good too. Today she still trains twice a week. She doesn’t do any extra exercises outside the pool, saying she is “a bit lazy”.
But last weekend in Saanich, Canada, she came out strong. She broke three world records in one day in the 100 to 104-year-old category. Brussels is “only” 99, but when swimming they take the year of birth as a starting point, which means that the lively lady has been in the higher age category since January 1. In the 400 meter freestyle, Brussels eventually even knocked four minutes off the previous world record. And she was also faster than the previous records in the 50 meter front crawl and back crawl.
“When I’m racing, I don’t think about anything,” Brussels tells ‘The Guardian’. “Really nothing. I just count the laps so I know how many more I have to do. And I try to find a rhythm that I try to persevere. You ask a lot of your body during such competitions. And during the last job I really gave everything I have! I don’t give up.”
At some distances, no one of that age has ever swum a competition, so Brussels only needs to finish in some competitions to set even more world records. “I really like swimming,” she says. “I like the feeling of gliding through the water, I feel good in the water.” Is she working on the records? “I just swim and I do my best. If that results in a record, then that’s nice. But if I also enjoyed it, then I’m happier.”