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“When I’m competing, I don’t think about anything. Nothing. I just count the laps to see how many laps I have left,” Betty told British newspaper The Guardian. “I always try to find a pace that I can maintain. You demand a lot from your body in these races. And in the last lap, well, I give everything I have.”

Since there are few swimmers in this age category, Brussels is almost guaranteed to break a record every time he enters the pool. In some disciplines, she breaks records simply by finishing the competition, as no swimmer her age has done before.

The record holder was born in 1924 in the Netherlands and learned to swim in the canals near Amsterdam. She moved to Canada in 1959 with her husband and became interested in amateur swimming around age 60, when she first competed in the British Columbia Senior Games.

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Betty told the Guardian she was a little clumsy at first, but fell in love with the sport. She joined the White Rock Wave Swimming Club five years ago, where she receives specialist training to reach her potential without putting strain on her body.

Despite her advanced age and training twice a week, she considers herself “lazy”. His greatest pleasure is not breaking records, but swimming and having as much fun as possible. She also describes herself as shy and says she is still getting used to the media attention she receives.

Betty’s husband Gerrit passed away a few years ago and she has found comfort and confidence in the pool ever since. Despite the loss, she is described as a happy and very talkative person, always with “a sparkle in her eye”.