The Rejuvenation Olympics: Inside the Competition to Age Backwards

A global leaderboard where competitors race to slow their biological aging. Using epigenetic testing, the Rejuvenation Olympics ranks who's aging the slowest — and Bryan Johnson is winning.

What if aging wasn't something that just happened to you — but something you could compete against? What if there was a leaderboard, updated in real time, ranking who in the world is aging the slowest?

That's exactly what the Rejuvenation Olympics is. And it's not a thought experiment. It's live, it's public, and people are spending millions of dollars trying to climb it.

What Is the Rejuvenation Olympics?

Founded in 2023 by tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson and longevity physician Dr. Oliver Zolman, the Rejuvenation Olympics is a global competition designed to answer a deceptively simple question: Who is aging the slowest?

Not who looks the youngest. Not who feels the best. Who is — measurably, biologically, at the molecular level — aging at the slowest rate.

The competition uses the DunedinPACE algorithm, a cutting-edge epigenetic measure developed at Duke University, to quantify how fast each participant is aging. Unlike traditional biological age clocks that try to guess your "real" age, DunedinPACE measures the pace of aging — think of it as a speedometer rather than an odometer. It doesn't tell you how old you are biologically; it tells you how fast you're getting there.

The competition actually runs two leaderboards: the DunedinPACE leaderboard (measuring pace of aging) and the Symphony Age leaderboard (a separate biological age algorithm). The DunedinPACE leaderboard is the flagship ranking and the one most competitors focus on.

The scoring is intuitive once you understand it. A DunedinPACE score of 1.0 means you're aging at the average rate for your age group. A score of 0.60 means you're aging at just 60% of the normal pace — effectively, for every year that passes on the calendar, your body only ages about 7 months. Lower is better.

The Rejuvenation Olympics partnered with TruDiagnostic, a leading epigenetic testing company, to provide standardized testing for all participants. This ensures everyone is measured on the same scale, using the same methodology, making the leaderboard a genuine apples-to-apples comparison.

How It Works

The competition isn't just about getting one lucky test result. The methodology is rigorous, and the verification process is designed to filter out noise and ensure consistency.

The Testing Process

Participants take TruAge epigenetic tests, which are blood-based DNA methylation assays. Here's what happens under the hood:

Blood draw: A standard blood sample is collected and sent to TruDiagnostic's lab.
DNA methylation analysis: The lab uses the Illumina EPIC850k methylation array, which analyzes over 850,000 individual methylation sites across your genome. These methylation patterns — chemical tags on your DNA that change with age — serve as the raw data for the aging calculations.
Algorithm processing: The DunedinPACE algorithm, along with 2nd and 3rd generation aging clocks, processes the methylation data. These algorithms are controlled for 12 immune cell subsets, which is critical because immune cell composition in blood can skew results if not accounted for.
Score generation: You receive your DunedinPACE score along with other epigenetic age estimates.

The test has an intraclass correlation coefficient greater than 0.96, meaning if you took the same blood sample and ran it twice, you'd get nearly identical results. That's exceptionally reliable for a biological measurement.

Verification

To earn the coveted "verified" badge on the leaderboard, participants must complete at least 3 tests within a 2-year period. This prevents someone from catching a single lucky result and claiming a top spot. The verified badge signals consistency — your slow aging pace isn't a fluke; it's a pattern.

The leaderboard tracks two key numbers: Avg Pace (the average of your best 3 DunedinPACE scores over 2 years) and Best Pace (your single lowest score ever). Rankings are determined by Avg Pace because it rewards consistency over one-off results. The leaderboard updates daily at 4 AM EST.

Serious competitors retest every 3 months to track their trajectory and climb the leaderboard. Each new data point either confirms their protocols are working or signals that adjustments are needed.

The Current Leaderboard: Who's Winning?

As of early 2026, the top of the Rejuvenation Olympics leaderboard reads like a who's-who of longevity enthusiasts. Here are the top verified competitors:

Rank	Name	Avg Pace	Best Pace	Clinic	Verified
1	Bryan Johnson	0.503	0.48	Blueprint Bryan Johnson	✅
2	Annie N	0.517	0.46	TruDiagnostic House Clinic	✅
3	Aldo Britschgi	0.540	0.53	TruDiagnostic House Clinic	✅
4	Marcus Jecklin	0.550	0.52	TruDiagnostic House Clinic	✅
5	Andres Sulaiman	0.607	0.56	Blueprint Bryan Johnson	✅
6	Andrew Ramirez Mountain	0.607	0.55	Hannah's Clinic	✅
7	Dixon Leavitt	0.620	0.54	NOVOS Labs	✅
8	Benjamin Shapiro	0.633	0.57	TruDiagnostic House Clinic	✅
9	Yurii Pitomets	0.637	0.60	TruDiagnostic House Clinic	✅
10	Dean Frost	0.640	0.45	Epic Genetics	✅

The leaderboard ranks by Avg Pace — the average DunedinPACE score from your best 3 tests over a 2-year period. Best Pace is your single lowest (best) score. Lower = slower aging = better. Data from rejuvenationolympics.com/dunedin-pace, February 2026.

A few things stand out. Bryan Johnson — the man who famously spends $2 million per year on his "Blueprint" anti-aging protocol, complete with a team of 30+ doctors — holds the #1 rank with an average pace of 0.503. That means his body is consistently aging at roughly half the normal rate across multiple tests.

But here's the genuinely interesting part: Annie N has the best single test score on the entire leaderboard — a best pace of 0.46, beating even Johnson's 0.48. And Dean Frost at #10 has an even more extreme best pace of 0.45, though his average is higher at 0.640, suggesting less consistency. The ranking by average pace rewards sustained performance over lucky single tests.

The top 10 are dominated by TruDiagnostic House Clinic and Blueprint Bryan Johnson clients, suggesting that having professional medical guidance matters. These top performers are all aging at roughly 50-65% of the normal pace — a remarkable achievement.

What Does DunedinPACE Actually Measure?

To understand what these scores really mean, you need to understand the science behind DunedinPACE.

The Dunedin Study

DunedinPACE stands for "Pace of Aging Computed from the Epigenome," and it was developed by researchers at Duke University based on data from the Dunedin Longitudinal Study — a landmark study that has followed 1,037 people born in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1972-73 from birth through midlife.

By measuring 19 biomarkers of organ function (kidneys, liver, lungs, immune system, cardiovascular system, metabolic health, etc.) across multiple time points, researchers could calculate each person's actual pace of aging — how much their body deteriorated per calendar year. They then used machine learning to identify DNA methylation patterns that predicted this pace, creating an algorithm that could estimate aging speed from a single blood draw.

Speedometer, Not Odometer

This distinction is crucial. Earlier epigenetic clocks like the Horvath clock (2013), PhenoAge (2018), and GrimAge (2019) attempt to estimate your biological age — essentially, "how old is your body really?" A 50-year-old with a Horvath biological age of 45 is doing well; one with a biological age of 58 is not.

DunedinPACE does something fundamentally different. It doesn't care about your cumulative age. It measures how fast you're aging right now. This makes it far more useful for evaluating interventions because it can detect changes in your aging trajectory over months rather than years. If you start a new protocol and your DunedinPACE drops from 0.85 to 0.65 over six months, you have real-time feedback that something is working.

The analogy researchers use: biological age clocks are like checking your car's odometer (how far have you traveled?), while DunedinPACE is like checking your speedometer (how fast are you going right now?). If you want to know whether slamming the brakes is working, the speedometer is what you need.

Criticism and Limitations

The Rejuvenation Olympics is exciting, but it's not without significant criticism. A responsible assessment requires acknowledging the limitations.

The Wealth Problem

TruAge testing costs approximately $1,000 per year for a subscription, and most top competitors are spending far more on their overall protocols. Bryan Johnson's $2 million annual spend is an extreme example, but even the more modest competitors tend to be wealthy individuals with the resources for extensive testing, supplementation, and professional guidance. The leaderboard is, by design, self-selected for affluent people who can afford to participate.

This raises an uncomfortable question: are we seeing the effects of lifestyle optimization, or the effects of wealth? Access to organic food, personal trainers, stress-free environments, premium healthcare, and unlimited testing resources all correlate with better health outcomes independent of any specific longevity intervention.

Short-Term vs. Long-Term

DNA methylation patterns can change relatively quickly — sometimes within weeks — in response to lifestyle changes. While this sensitivity is what makes DunedinPACE useful for tracking interventions, it also means short-term methylation improvements may not predict long-term outcomes. We simply don't have decades of follow-up data to confirm that a low DunedinPACE score at age 45 actually translates to living longer.

Gaming the Test

Perhaps the most pointed criticism is the possibility of gaming the test. Some interventions might improve methylation markers without genuinely slowing biological aging. For instance, certain supplements or acute lifestyle changes might shift methylation patterns at the specific CpG sites DunedinPACE measures, creating the appearance of slower aging without the underlying reality. Until we have longevity outcome data — which requires waiting decades — we can't fully rule this out.

Conflicts of Interest

Bryan Johnson's dual role as both founder and top competitor raises obvious conflict-of-interest concerns. He has a financial and reputational incentive for the competition to succeed and for his protocol to appear effective. While the underlying science (DunedinPACE, TruDiagnostic testing) is independent, the framing and promotion of the competition are not.

No Longevity Data Yet

The most fundamental limitation: the Rejuvenation Olympics launched in 2023. We won't know for decades whether the people at the top of the leaderboard actually live longer than average. The competition is measuring a biomarker that correlates with aging outcomes in population studies, but correlation at the population level doesn't guarantee predictive accuracy for optimized individuals pushing the boundaries.

What the Top Performers Have in Common

Despite the criticisms, the leaderboard reveals genuinely useful patterns. When you look past the exotic interventions and expensive supplements, the top performers share a remarkably consistent foundation:

Caloric optimization. Not starvation-level caloric restriction, but carefully controlled caloric intake. The top performers eat enough to fuel their activity and maintain lean mass, but they don't overeat. Most track their intake meticulously.

Sleep optimization. This is non-negotiable among top performers. They prioritize 7-9 hours of high-quality sleep, often using temperature-controlled environments, blackout curtains, consistent schedules, and sleep tracking to optimize every aspect of their rest.

Regular exercise. The leaderboard's best performers consistently combine Zone 2 cardio (low-intensity endurance work that builds mitochondrial density) with strength training (resistance work that preserves muscle mass and bone density). Neither alone is sufficient; the combination appears crucial.

Targeted supplementation. While specific stacks vary, common elements include omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, magnesium, and various polyphenols. The key word is "targeted" — these aren't people taking 50 random supplements. They test, measure, and adjust based on their individual biomarkers.

Regular biomarker testing. Beyond the epigenetic tests, top performers run comprehensive blood panels, DEXA scans, VO2 max tests, and other measurements regularly. They treat their health like an engineering problem: measure, intervene, measure again.

Stress management. Meditation, breathwork, time in nature, and structured downtime appear across nearly all top protocols. Chronic psychological stress is one of the most potent accelerators of epigenetic aging, and the top performers take its management seriously.

What This Means For You

Here's the part that actually matters for most people: you don't need to spend $2 million per year to slow your aging.

The Rejuvenation Olympics is validating something that longevity researchers have suspected for years: lifestyle interventions measurably slow biological aging. The people at the top of the leaderboard aren't there because of one magic pill or one exotic therapy. They're there because they consistently execute on the fundamentals.

And those fundamentals are largely free or cheap:

Sleep 7-9 hours in a cool, dark room — free
Exercise regularly with both cardio and resistance training — free to cheap
Eat whole foods with controlled portions — same cost or cheaper than processed food
Manage stress through meditation, nature, social connection — free
Don't smoke, limit alcohol — saves money

The exotic interventions — hyperbaric oxygen, plasma exchange, precision supplementation — might add marginal benefits on top of this foundation. But without the foundation, they're building on sand.

Epigenetic testing itself is becoming more accessible. While the TruAge subscription runs about $1,000/year, individual epigenetic age tests are now available for as little as $250 per test from various providers. Within a few years, this price will likely drop further, making it possible for ordinary people to track their aging pace alongside their cholesterol and blood pressure.

The Rejuvenation Olympics, for all its limitations, is doing something genuinely novel: creating a public, measurable, competitive framework for healthy aging. It's turning the abstract goal of "age well" into a concrete number you can track and improve. And the early data suggests that the biggest gains come not from spending more money, but from doing the boring basics with extraordinary consistency.

Your move? Master the fundamentals first. Sleep. Move. Eat real food. Manage stress. Then — and only then — consider testing and optimizing from there.

The competition to age backwards is just getting started. And the most important participant is you.

Sources

Rejuvenation Olympics — Official leaderboard and methodology: rejuvenationolympics.com
TruDiagnostic — TruAge epigenetic testing platform: trudiagnostic.com
Belsky, D.W., et al. (2022). "DunedinPACE, a DNA methylation biomarker of the pace of aging." eLife, 11:e73420. PMID: 35029144. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.73420