A few days ago, I was scrolling social media for reconnaissance, and an article came to my attention:
Naturally, I was more than a bit curious, as I had witnessed the record set back in 2003 (gosh, has that been 20 years ago now!?!?). Tim Sikes performed 3669 push ups in an hour at Bill Taylor's Bushido School of Karate in Murfreesboro in 2003. I was one of the official counters. Heck, I went to dinner with Tim and his family & friends after the event. The links in this blog's 2009 article are all still active, and even more are available online with Tim's record.
On the other hand, it was easy to find a Sports Illustrated article about the Australian man, and a few others.
Make no mistake, what Helmke did was not easy. A definite accomplishment. And even the official Guinness World Records site lists Helmke as the record-holder. However, 3206 in an hour is not as many as 3669 in an hour. Tim Sikes hit 3206 with 7 minutes left to go (give or take). I am not certain why Guinness is not acknowledging Sikes' record. I've seen their signed document (framed) among Sikes' belongings. Interestingly enough, the document they received, certifying the results, is signed by myself, among others (Sikes still has a copy of that, as well).
Why would someone doubt the Guinness claim? After all, it is their own claim. Well, because in 2003, Guinness themselves said the old record was 3416. Here is an article that quotes that.
Just in case you think this might be the only such conflicting story:
This article states Marine Corps veteran, TShane Johnson, unofficially broke the Guinness World Record for the most push-ups in one hour by performing 3050 push ups.
This article states Rob Stirling said he decided to take on the Guinness World Record for most pushups in 1 hour (male) after learning that Australian Daniel Scali set the total at 3,182 in April 2022.
Speaking of Scali, here is an article on his accomplishment.
Here is a YouTube video by what appears to be the Guinness official YouTube channel. The description states: The most push ups in one hour is 2,220 and was achieved by Carlton Williams (UK) in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia, on 25 July 2015. Clearly, the record could have been broken since 2015. But it goes to show that not all things line up.
And here is why you cannot trust #FakeNews -
From the Nashville Scene: The Associated Press reports that a 12-year-old in Murfreesboro did 3,669 push-ups in one hour recently, which is probably a new world record. The young man, Tim Sikes, would do 75 push-ups, then rest for 15 seconds, then do 75 more, and so on. The previous record of 3,416 push-ups, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, was set 28 years ago.
(emphasis was mine)
No such AP article could be found. However, an article by The Huron Daily Tribune may shed some light on this: "What began as a quest to beat his dad doing push-ups as a 12-year-old ended 28 years later with a likely world record for Tim Sikes." The Left has minimal reading comprehension skills (the Nashville Scene is a notoriously Left-Wing rag), and this demonstrates it. They claimed Sikes was 12 at the time he broke the record. However, Tim Sikes was 40 when he performed 3669 push ups in one hour.
Also, several of the articles linked above stated Sikes "did sets of 75 push ups for the hour." That is partially true. Sikes did four sets of 75 to start, then went to 60-pushup sets after that.
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