100-Year-Old Brazilian Sets World Record by Swimming 50 Meters in 1 Minute and 9 Seconds, Inspired by Tarzan Films

In Caxias do Sul, in Rio Grande do Sul, the gaucho Anton Biedermann set a world swimming record by turning 100 years old, swimming the 50 meters backstroke in 1 minute and 9 seconds, a feat by a 7-time world master champion who learned to swim inspired by the cinema’s Tarzan.

Some people at 100 years old just want to rest, and then there’s Anton. At 100 years old, the gaucho Anton Karl Biedermann did what most can’t do in their prime: he broke a world record in the pool. He swam the 50 meters backstroke in 1 minute and 9 seconds and set the best mark on the planet in the 100 years or older category. It wasn’t just a lucky day: Anton is a 7-time world master champion and still holds three more world records in his bag. And the most beautiful part is how it all began, with a boy enchanted by the cinema’s Tarzan.

His journey was told by ESPN and it seems like a movie script. The world swimming record came on September 22, 2024, the day Anton turned 100, during the Winter State Master Championship, at the Olympic pool of Recreio da Juventude, in Caxias do Sul. Today, already 101 years old, he continues in the water with no plans to hang up his swim trunks. He is living proof that age is just a number, and swimming can be for a lifetime.

A world record at 100 years old

On the day he completed a century of life, Anton Biedermann entered the pool and swam the 50 meters backstroke in 1 minute and 9 seconds.

This time was the best world mark ever recorded in the 100 years or older category.

The stage was gaucho, in Caxias do Sul.

The world swimming record happened during the Winter State Master Championship, at the Olympic pool of Recreio da Juventude, in Caxias do Sul, on September 22, 2024.

Breaking a record on your own 100th birthday is the kind of gift no one forgets.

And it wasn’t a painful effort of someone dragging themselves along.

Anton competed like the athlete he is, with refined technique in backstroke, showing that master swimming has in him one of its greatest symbols.

The age on the document contrasts with the agility in the water.

Seven-time world champion and three more records

The 100-year record is not an isolated case in Anton’s life.

He is a 7-time master swimming world champion and has set three other world records throughout his career, a resume many young athletes would love to have.

Master swimming, a category that brings together adult and elderly competitors, has found in him a name of international respect.

Loyalty to the sport is part of the story.

Anton Biedermann is an athlete of Grêmio Náutico União, a club from Rio Grande do Sul that he has represented since he was 17, meaning over eight decades wearing the same jersey.

Few ties in world sports last as long as this one.

This consistency explains his level.

You don’t become a 7-time master world champion by chance, but through decades of training, discipline, and love for the water, maintained without interruption even past 100.

Master swimming became the thread that stitches Anton’s entire life.

Learned to swim watching Tarzan at the cinema

As a child, Anton’s idol was Johnny Weissmuller, the actor who played Tarzan in the films of the time and who, before Hollywood, had been a phenomenal swimmer.

Every time a new Tarzan movie premiered, little Anton thought: I need to learn to swim.

Weissmuller wasn’t just any star.

Before becoming the King of the Jungle in cinema, he broke 28 world records, competed in two Olympics, and won six medals, five of them gold in swimming.

He was the perfect hero to inspire a boy to dive into the water.

Anton got his chance at 12 years old.

It was when his family moved from Rio Grande, in Rio Grande do Sul, where there was no pool, to Guaratinguetá, in São Paulo, and there, inspired by Tarzan scenes, he learned to swim in just three days.

A cinema dream turned into a lifelong skill.

A family that swam their entire lives

Swimming didn’t come into Anton’s life alone, it came with family.

His mother, Mrs. Alice, is an essential part of this story, and it’s easy to see from whom he inherited his connection with water.

At 94 years old, Mrs. Alice started swimming and took Anton and his sister, Helene, to enroll in a club.

A mother who jumps into the pool near 100 leaves a mark on any child.

This family environment turned swimming into a natural habit, almost an inheritance, passed down from generation to generation within the home.

It wasn’t an obligation or therapy, it was shared pleasure.

This is where you see the root of Anton’s active longevity.

Growing up in a family that values movement and water helped build the centenarian athlete who now holds a world swimming record.

The example came from the cradle, and he just carried it forward.

The secret of active longevity

Anton’s case is of interest far beyond sports.

In a report about his secrets, published by Exame, it becomes clear that keeping the body moving for decades is one of the pillars of a long and quality life.

Anton doesn’t swim despite his age; he reached 100 healthy precisely because he never stopped swimming.

The science of longevity aligns with his story.

Regular physical activity, purpose, social connection at the club, and a consistent routine are factors researchers associate with healthy aging, and Anton Biedermann embodies all of them in master swimming.

For him, the sport became both medicine and joy.

It’s worth the honest record, without miracles.

Genetics, luck, and decades of habit also count, and not everyone who swims will break a world record at 100, but the path Anton points to, staying active, is within reach for many people.

The lesson is less about medals and more about movement.

Why stories like this inspire so many people

Anton’s record went viral because it touches on a universal fear.

Almost everyone fears aging and becoming synonymous with limitation, and seeing a 100-year-old man setting a world swimming record in Caxias do Sul changes that idea.

He does not represent old age as an end, but rather as another chapter full of life.

There is also the charm of the beginning.

The image of the boy who wanted to be like Tarzan and crossed a century still swimming is poetic and concrete at the same time, from old cinema to the Olympic pool.

It is a complete story, with a beginning, middle, and record.

And there is the lightness of the character.

Anton is not a stern example of discipline; he is a gentleman who continues doing what he loves, and this genuine joy is what most captivates those who know his story.

The message is simple: keep moving, keep swimming.

What Anton’s case shows

The greatest lesson is about redefining what age means.

Anton Biedermann proved that at 100 years old, you can still be the best in the world at something, as long as you cultivate it your entire life, as he did with master swimming.

It was over eight decades of consistency, not a last-minute trick.

It’s worth keeping your feet on the ground.

Anton is a happy exception, the result of favorable genetics, a lifetime of sports, and a family connected to water, so the feat cannot be copied overnight.

It’s not a record formula; it’s an invitation to stay active.

Even so, the example illuminates.

At 101 years old and still in the pool, this centenarian from Rio Grande do Sul who learned to swim watching Tarzan continues to show that a world swimming record and advanced age can indeed fit in the same lane.

From childhood cinema to the top of the world, Anton turned a boyhood passion into proof that an active life has no expiration date.

And you, what impresses you most about Anton’s story, the record at 100 years old or the fact that it all started with the desire to swim like Tarzan? Tell us in the comments if you know someone who, like him, turned sports into a lifelong companion.