6 World Records in 45 Minutes

Everyone remembers Jesse Owens.

Other than 4 Gold medals at the same Olympics (and putting Hitler to shame), his next claim to fame was 4 or 6 world records in 45 minutes on May 25, 1935.

In actual fact, Owens set 3 WR, tied 1, and given the metric equivalents for 2, making a grand total of 6 World Records… an incredible feat.

I wrote a bit of satire of Usain Bolt breaking 4 WR in a single race. Yes, this is possible and within the rules, but we’ll need Bolt back in 2009 form first. His 2010 season was sub-par by many standards. Asafa Powell now has the 100 yard World Record using two FAT photo finish devices.

So when Alicia Weber (you can read more about her here, here and here) attempted 6 World Records in 45 minutes, you have to applaud her valiant efforts, whether she succeeds or not!

We’re not talking about a WR like Briton Andy Szerbini eating 226 baked beans in 5 minutes using a cocktail stick in 1996, or how Canadian Scott Williams downed two pints of Guinness in 6.3 seconds in 2003. We’re talking about events that requires strength, power, speed, endurance, and to some extent co-ordination!

So on May 27, 2010 at 1pm, the 6 events in order (and the number of reps in parenthesis) were:

Pull-ups in 1 minute (37)
Consecutive pull-ups (35)
Consecutive chin-ups (30)
Handstand pushups in 1 minute where the head must touch floor on every repetition (11 – YIKES!)
Ring “L” dips in 1 minute (4)
Ring dips in 1 minute (18)

Event #5 (the Ring “L” dips) record was declined, since not all reps were perfect, thus Alicia set 5 new world records in the process. You can read her full article on her website.

Congratulations Alicia.

SIDENOTE: I wonder how she celebrated her world record? Two pints of Guinness?