The Myth of Wim Hof's "26 Guinness World Records"
Depending on when you ask him, Wim Hof claims to have between 21 and 26 Guinness World Records, but try as I might I've never been able to see any official accounting of what they were . . . until now. After years of trying, I FINALLY got Guinness to respond and now know the truth. The answer surprised me. See the official list of Wim's World Records that Guinness Sent me.
Of course, you could argue that Guinness records have always been a little silly. After all, you can get authenticated records for spinning a basketball on a toothbrush, or having the largest slinky collection. But it’s important to remember that Hof’s record achievements are central to his biography. Just about every newspaper article and podcast interview about him mentions his feats of endurance and repeats his Guinness claims as proof of Hof’s supposed super-powers. So even if in the large scheme of things Guinness records are a not incredibly impressive, they are vitally important to the myth that Wim Hof presents to the world. When it’s clear that he’s inflated his total count, and gamed the Guinness system, it’s evidence of a larger pattern of deception that Wim has successfully monetized into a global brand.
It’s useful to remember that Hof frequently boasts that he is paid $50,000 for a single speaking engagement and that his organization Innerfire BV has a declared value of $18 million. There’s a lot of money to be had in presenting Wim as someone who has done great things and that his method will give you impossible powers of endurance, resilience and happiness.
Wim Hof’s organization is exceptionally sensitive to any documentation that pokes holes in the myths that they have built up around his personality. They have continually attempted to censor my reporting with complaints to my web hosting provider, to YouTube and claimed that documenting deaths and injuries associated with the method is slander. They have threatened legal action against me on several occasions.
This is because telling the truth about Wim Hof is bad for Wim Hof’s business. Innerfire knows that documenting the 19 deaths associated with the method will make people more cautious about Hof’s proclamations. They know that videos that specifically show Wim Hof demonstrating how he hyperventilates in water, contradicts the official warnings on their website.
After I posted the video above, Innerfire quickly tried to spin the story and make it appear that Hof has always been consistent in his claims. Luckily I keep good records. This is an image of Wim Hof’s website that had been live for at least five years at WimHofMethod.com.
The Wim Hof method website’s claims the day before I posted the video above.
Within hours of my reporting going live, Innerfire immediately (and quietly) updated their website with new claims that apparently qualify the statements that he has been giving publicly for at least a decade.
The Wim Hof method website the day AFTER I posted the video above.
And yet, even their update is still chock full of inaccuracies, if not outright lies. As you can see in the link above, Hof only has ever competed in Guinness World Record categories. The most charitable read of that data is that Hof has 18 Guinness World Record appearances. In every case Wim established the record in the first place (which means he automatically qualifies for a record) and then proceeded to get more records by beating his previous times/distances by tiny increments on national TV broadcasts. They were simply publicity stunts. In every case where other people started actually contesting his records, Hof quickly abandoned the efforts. He currently only hold’s one Guinness World Record—one that to the best of my knowledge has never been challenged.
If Innerfire and Wim Hof want to claim that he actually has records, I invite them to post the full list so that anyone can check his claims. My guess is that they will never do that.