Record-Breaking Seniors Prove You're Never Too Old to Do Something Extraordinary

Age is nothing but a number, and these grandmas and grandpas are proving you’re never too old to break records.

At age 86, Jim Arrington of California became the world’s oldest male bodybuilder just last year.

Arrington said he got hooked on bodybuilding when he was just 15 years old — back in the 1940s — and he’s been competing ever since.

“I think I'll keep going as long as I possibly can, as long as I enjoy it,” he told Guinness World Records. “If I don't enjoy something, I quit it.”

If Arrington is the strongest senior citizen, Ida Keeling of New York City is the fastest, becoming the oldest woman in the world to compete in the 100-meter dash at 100 years old.

She completed the feat in 2016 during Philadelphia’s Penn Relays.

Robert Marchand, of France, broke a record on wheels with a jaw-dropping, 14-mile bike ride in an hour earlier this year at 105 years old.

The longtime cyclist made waves in the 100-plus division with a 17-mile ride in an hour just years earlier.

Marchand, who was born before World War I and became a prisoner-of-war during World War II, started his cycling career in his youth and became serious about training in his old age.

The world’s oldest DJ, 83-year-old DJ Sumirock, aka Sumiko Iwanmuro, can be seen spinning at a Tokyo nightspot, where she holds a regular gig.

She said that while she prefers techno, she also plays rock, jazz and anime soundtrack, depending on the night.

In the daytime, DJ Sumirock, who appears in the Guinness World Records' 2019 edition, works as a chef in her Chinese restaurant.

Her next goal is to bring her musical gig to New York.

Betty Goedhart, two years DJ Sumirock’s senior, holds the record for the oldest female performing flying trapeze artists.

“I love to do things that are kind of out of the extraordinaire, and really have enjoyed doing things that nobody else wants to do,” she told Guinness World Records. She is also in the 2019 edition of the record book.

The California woman explained she was inspired to try her hand at the sport at 78 years old, inspired by trips to the circus as a little girl.  

“I just loved all those women," Goedhart said. "They flew so pretty, and I thought, 'How wonderful to be able to fly like that.' Someday I'm going to do that."

RELATED STORIES