ArticleOpen access journal of sports medicine2012
Age of peak performance in elite male and female Ironman triathletes competing in Ironman Switzerland, a qualifier for the Ironman world championship, Ironman Hawaii, from 1995 to 2011.
Article in Open access journal of sports medicine, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Performance, physiology, and determinants of success in IRONMAN® 70.3: A systematic review.PloS one · 2026Pooled it
- Age of Peak Competitive Performance of Elite Athletes: A Systematic Review.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2015Pooled it
- Talent Identification: Time to Move Forward on Estimation of Potentials? Proposed Explanations and Promising Methods.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Review
- Skateboarding's Olympic journey: do the performance profiles of top athletes remain consistent?Frontiers in physiology · 2025Article
- Women in the triathlon-the differences between female and male triathletes: a narrative review.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Review
- The influence of origin and race location on performance in IRONMAN® age group triathletes.PloS one · 2024Article
- Participation and performance trends in short-, medium, and long-distance duathlon.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Sex Difference in Triathlon Performance.Frontiers in physiology · 2019Review
- Relative Age Affects Marathon Performance in Male and Female Athletes.Journal of sports science & medicine · 2015Article
- Variables that influence Ironman triathlon performance - what changed in the last 35 years?Open access journal of sports medicine · 2015Review
- Increase in participation but decrease in performance in age group mountain marathoners in the 'Jungfrau Marathon': a Swiss phenomenon?SpringerPlus · 2015Article
- Elite triathletes in 'Ironman Hawaii' get older but faster.Age (Dordrecht, Netherlands) · 2014Article
- Trends in Triathlon Performance: Effects of Sex and Age.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2013Review
- Analysis of performance and age of the fastest 100-mile ultra-marathoners worldwide.Clinics (Sao Paulo, Brazil) · 2013Article
- Participation and performance trends in ultracycling.Open access journal of sports medicine · 2013Article
- Performance in Olympic triathlon: changes in performance of elite female and male triathletes in the ITU World Triathlon Series from 2009 to 2012.SpringerPlus · 2013Article
- A comparison of participation and performance in age-group finishers competing in and qualifying for Ironman Hawaii.International journal of general medicine · 2013Article
- Finisher and performance trends in female and male mountain ultramarathoners by age group.International journal of general medicine · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe age of peak performance in elite endurance athletes has been investigated for elite marathoners, but not for elite Ironman triathletes. The aim of this study was to analyze the age of peak performance in swimming (3.8 km), cycling (180 km), running (42 km), and overall race time for elite female and male Ironman triathletes competing in Ironman Switzerland, a qualifier for the Ironman world championship, known as the Ironman Hawaii.
methodsThe age of the annual top ten overall swimmers, cyclists, runners, and annual overall finishers for both male and female elite triathletes and their corresponding split and overall race times at the Ironman Switzerland were analyzed between 1995 and 2011.
resultsThe mean age of the elite Ironman triathletes was 33 ± 3 years for men and 34 ± 4 years for women. For women, the age of peak performance was not significantly different between the three disciplines (P > 0.05), while for men, the best swimmers (29 ± 3 years) were significantly (P < 0.05) younger than the best runners (35 ± 5 years). During the study period, the age of peak performance remained unchanged for men at 31 ± 3 years (P > 0.05), but increased for women from 30 ± 4 years in 1995 to 36 ± 5 years in 2011 (P < 0.01).
conclusionAlthough both women and men improved their overall race times during the 1995-2011 period, the age of peak performance was similar between women and men in the three disciplines and in overall race time. Future studies need to examine the change in age of peak performance across years in the Ironman Hawaii world championship event.
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