Back to Search Start Over

Older or Wiser? Age and Experience Trends in 20 Years of Olympic and World Swimming Championships Open Water 10-km Races

Authors :
Luis Rodríguez-Adalia
Santiago Veiga
Jesús Santos del Cerro
José M. González-Ravé
Source :
Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, Vol 6, Iss 4, p 89 (2021)
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2021.

Abstract

The aims of the present research were to estimate the age of peak performance (APP) and to examine the role of previous experience at the world-level open water race performances. Finishing positions and age of swimmers (639 females and 738 males) in the 10-km events of World Championship (WCH) and Olympic Games (OG) from 2000 to 2019 were obtained from the official results websites. Years of previous experience were computed using the number of previous participations in WCH or OG. APP was estimated using quadratic models of the 10th percentile top race positions and resulted in 28.94 years old for males (R2 = 0.551) and 27.40 years old for females (R2 = 0.613). Regression analysis revealed an improvement of 1.36 or 8.19 finishing positions for each additional year of age or experience, respectively (R2 = 0.157). However, significant differences (p < 0.001) between age and experience showed that the swimmer’s age became less relevant for performance as years of experience increased. These results, in terms of age, are in line with other mass-start disciplines of similar duration (≈2 h) and, in terms of experience, confirm the importance of previous participation in improving tactical decision making during open water races.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
24115142
Volume :
6
Issue :
4
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.15d78d11ee81409697db9bc316860c65
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk6040089