@misc{10481/93986,
year = {2024},
month = {8},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10481/93986},
abstract = {Objectives: To compare performance progression and variety in race distances
of comparable lengths (timewise) between pool swimming and track running.
Quality of within-sport variety was determined as the performance differences
between individual athletes’ main and secondary race distances across (top-)
elite and (highly-) trained swimmers and runners.
Methods: A total of 3,827,947 race times were used to calculate performance
points (race times relative to the world record) for freestyle swimmers
(n = 12,588 males and n = 7,561 females) and track runners (n = 9,230 males
and n = 5,841 females). Athletes were ranked based on their personal best at
peak performance age, then annual best times were retrospectively traced
throughout adolescence.
Results: Performance of world-class swimmers differentiates at an earlier age
from their lower ranked peers (15–16 vs. 17–20 year age categories, P < 0.05),
but also plateaus earlier towards senior age compared to runners (19–20 vs.
23 + year age category, P < 0.05), respectively. Performance development of
swimmers shows a logarithmic pattern, while runners develop linearly. While
swimmers compete in more secondary race distances (larger within-sport
variety), runners specialize in either sprint, middle- or long-distance early in
their career and compete in only 2, 4 or 3 other race distances, respectively.
In both sports, sprinters specialize the most (P < 0.05). Distance-variety of
middle-distance swimmers covers more longer rather than sprint race
distances. Therefore, at peak performance age, (top-) elite female 200 m
swimmers show significantly slower sprint performances, i.e., 50 m (P < 0.001)
and 100 m (P < 0.001), but not long-distance performances, i.e., 800 m
(P = 0.99) and 1,500 m (P = 0.99). In contrast, (top-) elite female 800 m
middle-distance runners show significantly slower performances in all their
secondary race distances (P < 0.001). (Top-) elite female athletes specialize
more than (highly-) trained athletes in both sports (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: The comparison to track running and lower ranked swimmers, the
early performance plateau towards senior age, and the maintenance of a large
within-sport distance variety indicates that (top-) elite sprint swimmers benefit
from greater within-sport specialization.},
organization = {grants of Swiss
Olympic (national governing body of sports) and the Swiss
Swimming Federation [ZI70B1020071 RLS 3M/SwissAqua/KPI]},
publisher = {Frontiers Media},
keywords = {elite athlete},
keywords = {talent},
title = {Sprinting to the top: comparing quality of distance variety and specialization between swimmers and runners},
doi = {10.3389/fspor.2024.1431594},
author = {Born, Dennis-Peter and Romann, Michael and Lorentzen, Jenny and Zumbach, David and Feldmann, Andri and Ruiz-Navarro, Jesús J.},
}