The Most Amazing Guinness World Records of 2021

2021 has been another very strange year, as far as years go – and there aren’t really any normal years anyway. While there have certainly been peaks and troughs, one thing that has remained constant throughout is humankind’s devotion to setting amazing Guinness World Records for outlandish feats of intelligence, physicality, perseverance, and… well, just about everything else.

It’s been a wild twelve months for new Guinness World Records, and to celebrate the indomitable human spirit, we’ve picked out a few of our favourites below.

Amazing Guinness World Records: 2021 Edition

Record: Most helicopter spins while skysurfing

Who: KĒBĒ Keith Edward Snyder, USA

Total: 160

If you’ve never heard of skysurfing before, picture somebody leaping from a plane while strapped to a snowboard. Keith Edward Snyder took this a step further by adding in helicopter spins – a move consisting of turning upside down while falling and spinning around like a helicopter’s rotor. Of course!

Snyder, who has dedicated countless hours of training to skydiving and skysurfing, executed the whopping 160 helicopter spins after jumping from a plane 13,500 feet above Cairo, Egypt. By the time he reached 5,000, feet he had broken the record and exited the spin to enjoy skysurfing above the pyramids.

Record: Fastest 20 metres walking on hands

Who: Zion Clark, USA

Time: 4.78 seconds

Zion Clark smashed the world record for the fastest 20 metres walked on hands in 2021. At age 24, he weighs around 56 kilos, a huge proportion of which is muscle. Born without the lower half of his body due to Caudal Regression Syndrome, Clark found confidence in competitive wrestling, and is currently aiming to become the first athlete to compete in both the Olympic and Paralympic athlete in history. His website is a truly inspiring place, too.

Record: Fastest time to pull a car 50 metres walking on hands

Who: Zhang Shuang, China

Time: 1 min, 13.27 seconds

Two hand-walking records for the price of one! Continuing with the theme, Zhang Shuang broke the world record for the fastest time to pull a car 50 metres walking on his hands – a record which, frankly, sounds impossible. Shuang’s technique was to tie a chord around his waist and walk backwards on his hands, leaning away from the car with his torso to help increase the tension. Brains and brawn.

Record: Furthest backflip between horizontal bars

Who: Ashley Watson, England

Distance: 6.00 metres

Ashley Watson, a gymnast from Leeds, smashed this record in 2021. What’s even more impressive is that the previous record he smashed was his own – sitting previously at 5.87 metres. It took Watson months of intensive training to lead up to the gargantuan leap, which you can watch below.

Record: Most consecutive cars jumped over on a pogo stick

Who: Tyler Phillips, USA

Total: 5

This year, Tyler Phillips leapt enormous heights and distances on his pogo stick to clear five consecutive London black cabs (this means he landed between each vehicle, rather than clearing all five at once). Each taxi was 2.8 metres apart. After clearing the last taxi and breaking the world record – previously set at four cars – Phillips even had enough energy leftover to finish his stunt with a front flip.

Record: Furthest basketball shot hit from the ground with the hand

Who: Alireza Sadeghi Barzani, Iran

Distance: 15 metres

Waiting on his hands and knees, Iranian athlete Alireza Sadeghi Barzani received a rolling pass of a basketball, and with one deft movement of his arm, hit it in a perfect arc over a massive 15 metres, where it fell comfortably through the hoop. The 50-year-old Barzani is famous for his variety of impressive sporting feats performed while using crutches.

Record: Shortest competitive bodybuilder (male)

Who: Pratik Mohite, India

Height: 102cm (3 ft 4)

At just over one metre tall, it wasn’t easy for Mohite to begin bodybuilding. First starting bodybuilding in 2012, for nine years he has worked incredibly hard to develop a bodybuilder’s physique and physical strength. What’s makes the world record for shortest competitive bodybuilder even more impressive is the fact Mohite is only 25 years old.

Did you know?

The Army Cadets have two Guinness World Records of their own, set on the 10^th of October 2020 to mark World Mental Health Day. The first of these records was for the deepest underground marathon distance run (team). The idea behind the record was to spread the idea that we never know what’s going on beneath the surface in terms of mental health. Sally Orange and Jordan Wylie represented Army Cadets for the marathon, which was completed in a mine in North Yorkshire at a depth of at least 1,000 metres.

The second record broken was for the most people completing an online mental health awareness course in 24 hours. This was broken on the same day, and was completed by 1,622 Army Cadets and Cadet Force Adult Volunteers. Aside from holding a new Guinness World Record, participants in the course can now recognise the signs of poor mental health, thereby helping to aid their friends and colleagues, as well as removing the stigma around the discussion of mental health.

Here’s to more records being smashed in 2022!

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2021/11/guinness-world-records-day-2021-682545

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2021/12/daredevil-breaks-skysurfing-helicopter-spins-world-record-684077