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

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.