Betty Brussel (born July 28, 1924)[1] is a Dutch-Canadian competitive swimmer. She has set a total of five world records, three of which were established on January 20, 2024. She is a centenarian.
Athletic career
Brussel started swimming competitively when she was 68. That year, she joined a swim club with her husband.[2] She competed in the BC Seniors Games in the 1990s.[3] In 2019, Brussel competed in the BC Masters Provincial Championships where she won seven gold medals.[4] She also set the world record in the 95–99 age category for the 50-metre breaststroke.[5] In 2022, she won the Ted Simpson Award at an event in South Surrey.[6] In 2023, she won the Swimming Excellence Award at a competition in Calgary.[7]
On January 20, 2024,[3] Brussel set the world record for 400-metre freestyle, beating the previous one by four minutes.[8] She broke two other records that day, in the 50-metre breaststroke and 50-metre backstroke.[9] Her time for the breaststroke event was 1 minute 56.22 seconds and for the backstroke event was 1 minute 25.22 seconds.[1] Her time for the 400 m freestyle event was 12 minutes and 50 seconds.[10] In April 2024, she set the record in the 800 m freestyle at a time of 26 minutes and 17 seconds in a Masters swimming competition.[11] She broke these records while she was 99 in the 100-to-104-year-old age category, as it relies on birth year rather than exact age. Few swimmers have ever competed at Brussel's age and sometimes she has been the first to ever finish a distance.[8] Brussel trains twice a week and is the oldest member of the White Rock Wave Swim Team, a competitive Canadian masters swim team.[12]
Personal life
Brussel was born in Zaandam, Netherlands in 1924. She dropped out of high school during World War II to care for her ten younger siblings. She first learned how to swim in a canal near Amsterdam.[13] Her family could not afford to pay for swim lessons.[2]
She married her husband Gerrit in 1949[1] and they emigrated to Canada in 1959 where she worked as a seamstress.[14] Brussel had three children while living in Grand Forks, British Columbia.[8] Brussel retired in 1982[12] and now lives in New Westminster.[15] Besides swimming, she is an avid reader and enjoys knitting and cross-stitching.[12] A documentary about her life is in production[12] by Hannah Walsh and Emma Puchniak and a 2024 release is planned.[13] It was funded through Kickstarter.[14]