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BC Swimming Alumni Network – Betty Brussel

Betty Brussel’s love of sport began long before she entered competitive swimming. Growing up in Amsterdam as the second of twelve children in the late 1920s and 1930s, she living through five years of wartime occupation as a teenager, and did not have access to organized sports. Regardless, her childhood was filled with sport; summers were spent swimming in Amsterdam’s canals, and when winter arrived, bathing suits were swapped for skates and Betty excelled at speed skating. These early years helped build a lifelong love of movement and laid the foundation for what would become a highly decorated competitive swimming career.