In superaged Japan, athletes are making waves well into their 90s

Shoko Yonezawa at the Kanagawa Kenritsu Sports Center swimming pool in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Wednesday. She is inspiring people decades younger than her. | Johan Brooks

Sep 21, 2026

Shoko Yonezawa is 91 and has a good reason to look forward to turning 95.

The Yokohama resident and grandma of five is a competitive swimmer who has made headlines with her performances for years. Last year, she broke world records — some of which were her own — in the women’s 90-94 years category a total of 29 times. She partly attributes the feat to her being among the younger competitors in that category.

But that explanation only goes so far. Yonezawa’s short-course 200-meter breaststroke time of 4:32.36, recorded at a meet in Niigata Prefecture in June 2025, was 13% faster than the previous masters world record.

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