ArticleFrontiers in psychology2019
Relative Age Influences Performance of World-Class Track and Field Athletes Even in the Adulthood.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Enhancing the Interpretation of Competition Performance and Physical Characteristics in Male Youth Track and Field Athletes.European journal of sport science · 2026Article
- The relative age effect among Malaysian university athletes: a cross-sectional survivorship analysis with exploratory AI-based movement screening.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- Relative age effect and its impact on athletic performance among Chinese elite youth male basketball players.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Relative Age Effect Among World-Class Jump Athletes.Journal of sports science & medicine · 2025Article
- Tell me your date of birth, and I will tell you how good you are in orienteering.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Article
- Relative age of youth swimmers and their sporting performance at the end of the season.PloS one · 2025Article
- Sports participation and sex outweigh the relative age effect in motor competence of school-aged children.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Article
- The Relative Age Effect across an International Soccer Programme in Male and Female Players Aged 12 Years Old to Seniors.Journal of human kinetics · 2024Article
- Relative age effects on speed trials in Brazilian athletics.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2023Article
- The relative age effect is widespread among European adult professional soccer players but does not affect their market value.PloS one · 2023Article
- Why age categories in youth sport should be eliminated: Insights from performance development of youth female long jumpers.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- The Influence of Contextual Factors on the Relative Age Effect in Male International Rugby Union: The Impact of Sociocultural Influences and Playing Position.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- The Relative Age Effect in the Best Track and Field Athletes Aged 10 to 15 Years Old.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Relative Age Effects in Male Cricket: A Personal Assets Approach to Explain Immediate, Short-Term, and Long-Term Developmental Outcomes.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Article
- Relative Age Effect Among the Best Norwegian Track and Field Athletes of All Time: Comparisons of Explosive and Endurance Events.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Successful Young Athletes Have Low Probability of Being Ranked Among the Best Senior Athletes, but This Is Higher When Compared to Their Less Successful Peers.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Article
- Relative age effects in track-and-field: Identification and performance rebalancing.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Article
- Small Relative Age Effect Appears in Professional Female Italian Team Sports.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The relative age effect (RAE) is a common phenomenon observed in youth sports and is characterized by a significant over-representation of athletes born close to the date of selection. However, there is a lack of research on RAE in world-class track and field athletes and it is not clear if this effect persists into adulthood. Thus, this study examined for the first time the prevalence and magnitude of RAE at world class level in all track and field disciplines. Birthdates of 39,590 athletes (51.6% females) ranked in the International Association of Athletics Federations top 100 official lists between 2007 and 2018 season of Under 18, Under 20, and Senior categories were collected. Under 18 and Under 20 athletes born in the first week of the year are about 2 to 3.5 times more likely to be included in the top-100 ranking than the athletes born in the last week of the year. RAE was overall larger in male compared to female athletes. In some disciplines (e.g., throwing events) RAE persists in Senior category. These findings suggest that in some disciplines relatively younger athletes may have less chances of reaching world-class performances even in the adulthood. Governing bodies should reflect upon their policies for athlete support and selection to minimize the RAE.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.