This month, the 51-year-old strongman set his 103rd Guinness World Record (he holds 30 current official records) by carrying a person exactly his own weight in a fireman’s carry position for a mile in fifteen minutes.
Previously, he ran 50 miles in less than 9 hours while juggling three balls; he balanced a milk bottle on his head continuously for 81 miles; seventy-five 20-ounce pint glasses balanced on his chin; he jumped the 1,900 steps of Toronto’s CN Tower; he somersaulted through Paul Revere’s 12 1/4-mile race in Massachusetts; and he walked 5 miles on stilts in just under 40 minutes, to name a few. On The Oprah Winfrey Show, Ashrita had to be escorted off the show by paramedics after eating the world’s hottest chili peppers.
Other records set by Ashrita over the past three decades include the fastest mile pushing an orange with her nose, the fastest mile in a pogo stick, and the most milk crates balanced on someone’s chin.
Ashrita timed her last attempt to coincide with Guinness World Records Day. Guinness Records, the keeper of all wacky and wonderful records, has been around for 50 years and has set aside November 9 as a day to celebrate record-setting achievements.
To verify Ashrita’s record, Stuart Claxton, head of the Guinness US research team, was present. “Guinness World Records has a wholesome sense of humor, so we’re always interested in making it fun, too. But we’re really looking for things that other people can break because, as we always say, ‘Records are meant to be broken.'” ‘ And that’s what we’re celebrating today,” he said.
Other record attempts were also held around the world to mark Guinness World Record Day. This month in New York, Chad Fell popped a 20-inch bubble of gum, setting a record for the largest without the use of his hands. Aaron Studham from Leominster, Massachusetts sported the highest Mohawk haircut ever, standing at a hair-raising 21 inches. Other Guinness World Records attempted included the ‘Longest Non-stop Commercial Flight’, from Hong Kong to London’s Heathrow, and the ‘Largest Milkshake’ attempt by a group in Brisbane, Australia.
The Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, of which Ashrita is a member, hosts another annual event in Germany to mark Guinness World Record Day. Dubbed the ‘Impossibility Challenger’, the one-day occasion draws participants from around the world hell-bent on setting world and personal records in a variety of non-Olympic disciplines. To athletes and record seekers, these feats are known as ‘Guinnessport’. The term was coined in the 1970s to describe the daredevil antics that earned them a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, which is also the world’s best-selling book. According to the organizers of the Impossibility Challenger and lovers of Guinnessport, the goal is to “overcome human limitations and challenge the seemingly impossible”.
This year, Shobha Tipnis from India became the first woman in the world to inflate a hot water bottle with her lungs until it burst. Gill Zafar, from neighboring Pakistan, lifted metal plates weighing 55kg with her right ear and held the weight in the air for 12.2 seconds. Shamita Achenbach-Konig set a Guinness record that pampered the ears: the professional cellist from Vienna played the cello for 24 hours.
Albert Walter, Swiss record holder in the bench press in 2004, set two new world records. He tore up a 960-page phone book in 2.8 seconds and broke an 8.5mm-thick carpenter’s nail with his bare hands. Rainer Schroder from Germany towed a three-tonne truck with his teeth to achieve the Guinness World Record of 35.8 meters in one minute. Milan Roskopf of Slovakia set a world record by juggling three 20-pounders [9kg] shot put for 25.6 seconds.
Ashrita Furman, the king of Guinnessport and often the top draw card, at a recent Impossibility Challenger set not one but three new records. In the space of a few hours, he completed a mile of hula-hoop spins, a mile of lunges [in which the knee had to touch the ground at every step]and standing on a gymnastic ball, balancing three hours and 30 minutes and bettering his own previous record by more than an hour.
Guinnessport fans have come to expect the impossible from Furman. He has broken so many records, in so many disciplines, that in 1987 Guinness editor Norris McWhirter awarded him the title of ‘Mr. Versatility’ and allowed him an additional record: the most world records in unrelated categories.
Anke Riedel, director of the new Impossibility-Challenger, recalls an earlier event in 1990 when Ashrita broke the record for playing the most hopscotch games in 24 hours. At that same event, karate masters cut blocks of ice and a daredevil rode his bike backwards while playing the violin. The Impossibility-Challenger is nothing but diverse.
Over the past 25 years, Furman has broken more than 103 records in everything from zip lining to land rowing. “Ask fans who is the greatest athlete of all time,” The Christian Science Monitor once wrote, “and you’ll hear a familiar debate about the likes of Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth.” However, ask readers of the Guinness Book of World Records and you’ll likely hear a consensus on one name: Ashrita Furman.
Ashrita visited New Zealand in 2003 when she set a world record by juggling three lead balls underwater at Kelly Tarltons Underwater World for 48 minutes straight in a large fish tank. His first attempt at it was cut short after 16 minutes when a small parrot fish bit him repeatedly on the nose!
Furman attributes all of his accomplishments to a lifelong practice of meditation, which he believes helps develop intense focus of the mind, self-confidence, and willpower. He is also quick to credit all his records to his meditation teacher, Sri Chinmoy, 74.
“In my teens I began to search for a deeper meaning in life and studied Eastern philosophy and yoga. Later I attended a meditation evening with the Indian master Sri Chinmoy, a meeting that changed the course of my life. Sri Chinmoy radically changed the way he looked at things. His philosophy of self-transcendence, of pushing your limits and progressing day by day spiritually, creatively, and physically, using the power of meditation, really moved me. I was a little unsure about the part though. physical in my case because of my lifelong commitment to nerdiness.
But I came to understand that the body is just an instrument of the spirit and, if done with the right awareness, physical feats can be just as, if not more, uplifting than meditating in a temple.”