Competition age: does it matter for swimmers?

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To establish reference data on required competition age regarding performance levels for both sexes, all swimming strokes, and race distances and to determine the effect of competition age on swimming performance in the context of other common age metrics. In total, 36,687,573 race times of 588,938 swimmers (age 14.2 ± 6.3 years) were analyzed. FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation) points were calculated to compare race times between swimming strokes and race distances. The sum of all years of race participation determined competition age.

Results

Across all events, swimmers reach top-elite level, i.e. > 900 FINA points, after approximately 8 years of competition participation. Multiple-linear regression analysis explained up to 40% of variance in the perfor

SUBMITTER: Born DP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8867847 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature