What’s new in Guinness World Records 2024?

Gitanjali Rao She is a 17-year-old from Denver, USA, who holds the record for the “First TIME Magazine Kid of the Year”, for her invention of new technologies to address contaminated drinking water, cyberbullying, and more.
She won the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge in 2017 and was recognised on Forbes 30 Under 30 for her innovations. — Gitanjali Rao She is a 17-year-old from Denver, USA, who holds the record for the “First TIME Magazine Kid of the Year”, for her invention of new technologies to address contaminated drinking water, cyberbullying, and more. She won the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge in 2017 and was recognised on Forbes 30 Under 30 for her innovations.

Every year, the editors at Guinness World Records honour those individuals from across the world who have created a new record or broken an old one, just to get the recognition they deserve. It could be a record that was considered unachievable or unthinkable before someone made it possible, or something that happened during the year without much preparation.

Whatever the reason, the last 12 months have been quite eventful in the eyes of the Guinness People who have legitimised many new records or recorded better ones in their yearly book, which is released a few months before the end of the year, to give time to those individuals who want to go against the tide.

The Guinness World Records 2024 is different from many of its predecessors since it encourages youngsters to go ahead and make a record. A handful of young achievers speak to the editors here and if that doesn’t inspire you to create a record, nothing will. After all, it isn’t an everyday occurrence that a record holder gets to speak to the foremost record experts in the world and talk about their struggles.

Don’t believe me, believe the text in these pages. From breaking the record of the most tosses of a pancake in one minute to the youngest documentary presenter, the Guinness World Records 2024 has countless records featuring kids who are yet to celebrate their 16th birthday. After all, it would be an achievement worth mentioning if a four-year-old discovers a dinosaur fossil or catches the rugby ball 23 times in one minute, using just one hand. Impressive, isn’t it?

Simeon Graham He holds the record for the Most Juggling Catches in One Minute (five, six and seven balls)
Simeon Graham, a 15-year-old from Birmingham holds three records for:
• Most juggling catches in one minute (five balls) - 423
• Most juggling catches in one minute (six balls) -396
• Most juggling catches in one minute (seven balls) - 378
He started when he was only seven years old, and has trained relentlessly for eight years, implementing tricks to his routines. To improve his precision, he also learned how to juggle while being on his knees. — Simeon Graham He holds the record for the Most Juggling Catches in One Minute (five, six and seven balls) Simeon Graham, a 15-year-old from Birmingham holds three records for:
• Most juggling catches in one minute (five balls) - 423
• Most juggling catches in one minute (six balls) -396 • Most juggling catches in one minute (seven balls) - 378
He started when he was only seven years old, and has trained relentlessly for eight years, implementing tricks to his routines. To improve his precision, he also learned how to juggle while being on his knees.

That’s not all, everyone gets to learn a thing or two from the six Young Achievers interviews presented with this latest edition. Who knows any one of the readers might get inspired after reading Sofia Tepla’s words or finding out about Reyansh Surani’s struggle to ‘balance’ life.

Let’s talk about the overall theme of the GWR 2024 — Blue Planet — which means that everything that is part of the watery world will be found on these pages. From aquatic life to humans, every living thing gets a mention in these pages, but only if they have a record to their name. You can be an achiever in your world, but in the Guinness World Records world, you have to have a GWR certificate to claim your superiority over others.

As for the GWR 2024, this book is divided into nine chapters namely Blue Planet, Aquatic Life, Humans, Recordology, Adventures, History, Science & Technology, Arts & Media, and Sports. Most of the chapters begin with an explainer and end with a roundup whereas exciting records and information take the lead between the start and the finish.!

Sofia Tepla This 12-year-old Sofia Tepla from Ukraine holds two Guinness World Records titles for her contortion skills:
1. The most contortion roll push-ups in 30 seconds — 21
2. World’s fastest time to travel 20 m in a contortion roll – in 10.49 seconds.
Her professional journey started when she was just seven years old and she now performs on stage and travels to many countries. — Sofia Tepla This 12-year-old Sofia Tepla from Ukraine holds two Guinness World Records titles for her contortion skills: 1. The most contortion roll push-ups in 30 seconds — 21 2. World’s fastest time to travel 20 m in a contortion roll – in 10.49 seconds. Her professional journey started when she was just seven years old and she now performs on stage and travels to many countries.

Forget the oldest woman, tallest building and heaviest man records, this year GWR takes a giant leap forward and brings stuff that no one would have imagined could be a part of this record book. After all, if you had told a layman in the 1990s that there would be a time when people would be claiming records for Pogo-sticking or skateboarding, or collecting Pringle Tubes, that person would have laughed it off. But the truth is, now everything can be a record and that should motivate all the folks out there to at least try.

GWR2024 takes you across the globe!

Guinness World Records can easily be termed as the quintessential record book in the world and they come up with new ideas now and then. A few years back they came up with 3D glasses to make records come to life and today they have come up with the next-gen QR codes. Through these QR codes, you can access hours of videos placed throughout the book, making you part of the record creation and breaking for a few moments.

Michael Khanh Artiaga (Gamer tag: dogplayingtetris)
At 12, Artiaga became the world’s youngest Tetris world champion, by beating his 15-year-old brother in the final of the 2020 Classic Tetris World Championships! — Michael Khanh Artiaga (Gamer tag: dogplayingtetris) At 12, Artiaga became the world’s youngest Tetris world champion, by beating his 15-year-old brother in the final of the 2020 Classic Tetris World Championships!

Also, the history chapter as well as the sports chapter feature a lot of records that constantly get updated; hence they deserve a look even if you think you know about them. In collaboration with Bucketlist.net, GWR2024 has come up with the 100 most popular bucket list ideas with the records (if tried before) which could plant the seed of attempting that record or something similar in the next 12 months. After all, who doesn’t have watching blue whales, and visiting Egypt’s Giza or the Taj Mahal on their list?

Blast from the past

The specially designed “History Chapter” is also a not to be missed affair in this book because that’s where yesteryear record holders are honoured. One look at this chapter and you will be transported back in time, when extraordinary Egyptians ruled the land, pirates were the king of the seas and incredible inventions paved the way for technological advancements.

Rafał Biros From Poland, was just 12 years 199 days old when he became “the youngest person to discover a comet”! The comet was named SOHO-4094 and since then, he has found ten more!
He has been interested in astronomy since kindergarten and started looking for comets during the COVID-19 lockdown in May 2020. He is part of NASA’s Sungrazer Project, a citizen-science project that lets regular people be a part of scientific research projects. This gives him access to pictures taken of space by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and Biros studies these images and tries to spot comets (which look like little, out-of-place blobs)! — Rafał Biros From Poland, was just 12 years 199 days old when he became “the youngest person to discover a comet”! The comet was named SOHO-4094 and since then, he has found ten more! He has been interested in astronomy since kindergarten and started looking for comets during the COVID-19 lockdown in May 2020. He is part of NASA’s Sungrazer Project, a citizen-science project that lets regular people be a part of scientific research projects. This gives him access to pictures taken of space by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and Biros studies these images and tries to spot comets (which look like little, out-of-place blobs)!

It is in this chapter that you will get to know how the real Mystery Machine (not the Scooby-Doo one!) looked and worked, what the height of the tallest pyramid is, and how much the most expensive armour cost back in the medieval days.

And if you didn’t know that the first pirate queen existed in 237–227BCE, or that Robert L Stevenson’s Treasure Island is the most adapted pirate story of all times, then you need to polish your pirate knowledge. Not only that, this chapter features stuff related to shipwrecks, inventions that led to everyday items we use today, as well as myths and magic which is not what you read every day.

Real life, reel life!

This book wouldn’t be complete without the mention of films and animations which are part and parcel of nearly every cinegoer’s life. From the longest career as a stuntman to dethroning a fellow actor from the position of longest breath-hold on screen, this chapter discusses props, OTT platforms and global music to name a few.

The fun doesn’t stop there as real-life magicians, esports enthusiasts, and circus artists also get represented here and although they don’t get any special treatment and are restricted to a single spread, the records mentioned in these pages are worth your while.

Sports

Every major sport in the world gets a full page in this record galore; from cricket to baseball, from basketball to hockey, from football to rugby, every record that should be mentioned in this gets a mention. You will also love the “Awesome Arena” double spread which houses details about the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Utah Olympic Oval as well as Beijing’s National ‘Bird Nest’ Stadium.

Pakistan, present!

Each year Pakistanis wait for this record galore to find out which of their countrymen or countrywomen have made it to the coveted record book and they would be glad to find out that Grammy-winning Arooj Aftab and mountaineer Shehroze Kashif are now Guinness World Record holders. While Arooj is credited as the first winner of the Best Global Music Performance Grammy, Shehroze Kashif is now the youngest person to climb both (Mount) Everest and K2.

That’s not all, while the wanted record of most runs scored in a single day of a Test match went to England, the team at the receiving end was Pakistan who couldn’t control their aggressive visitors who went all out in the Pindi Test played in late 2022.

GWR Hall of Fame

And then there is the Guinness Hall of Fame where “Officially Amazing” folks are inducted every year and this year, the late British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, music maestro Elton John and Basketball dynamos the Harlem Globetrotters make it to this coveted club.

Also in this list are wheelchair-bound tennis stars Shingo Kunieda and Diede de Groot who along with their fellow Hall of Famers get a full page to themselves where their achievements are discussed and their images are immortalised vertically in these pages. By the way, there is an “Upside Down” spread in this book but I will not tell you why it is so, you will have to find it out yourself.

Overall, Guinness World Records 2024 doesn’t disappoint because it is a combination of a treasure trove of information, and colourful photographs and takes you around the world without making you move a muscle. It is something to play with when you are sitting with your friends or want to improve your knowledge about everything between heaven and Earth. It is worth every second of your time and who knows, it might inspire you to break or create a record in such a way that you become part of this record book.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 23rd, 2023

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