ArticleScandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports2020
Multigenerational performance development of male and female top-elite swimmers-A global study of the 100 m freestyle event.
Article in Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Performance Progression and Stability of Female Swimmers Across Different Swimming Techniques from Childhood to Adulthood.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Multivariate dynamic association analysis between sprint interval training and adolescent freestyle swimming performance.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Annual Performance Progression in Swimming Across Competition Levels and Race Distances.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2025Article
- Talent Identification: Time to Move Forward on Estimation of Potentials? Proposed Explanations and Promising Methods.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Review
- Higher relevance of mechanical determinants for short-distance performance and metabolic determinants for middle-distance performance in female adolescent swimmers at national level.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Focus on One Swimming Stroke or Compete in Multiple: How Much Specialization Is Needed to Become a World-Class Female Swimmer?Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2025Article
- Specializing When It Counts: Comparing the Dose-Time Effect of Distance Variety between Swimming and Track Running.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Sprinting to the top: comparing quality of distance variety and specialization between swimmers and runners.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2024Article
- Quantity of within-sport distance variety - what can pool swimmers and track runners learn from each other?Frontiers in sports and active living · 2024Article
- Corrective adjustment methods for relative age effects on French young swimmers' performances.PloS one · 2023Article
- Tracking performance and its underlying characteristics in talented swimmers: a longitudinal study during the junior-to-senior transition.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- Identification of key somatic features that are common and the ones that differ between swim strokes through allometric modeling.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2023Article
- Comparing cross-sectional and longitudinal tracking to establish percentile data and assess performance progression in swimmers.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Start Fast, Swim Faster, Turn Fastest: Section Analyses and Normative Data for Individual Medley.Journal of sports science & medicine · 2022Article
- Performance Development of European Swimmers Across the Olympic Cycle.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2022Article
- Relevance of a Sprint Interval Swim Training Set to the 100-Meter Freestyle Event Based on Blood Lactate and Kinematic Variables.Journal of human kinetics · 2021Article
- Multigenerational performance development of male and female top-elite swimmers-A global study of the 100 m freestyle event.Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports · 2020Article
- Interim Performance Progression (IPP) During Consecutive Season Best Performances of Talented Swimmers.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2020Article
- Variation in competition performance, number of races, and age: Long-term athlete development in elite female swimmers.PloS one · 2020Article
- Competition-Based Success Factors During the Talent Pathway of Elite Male Swimmers.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe present study investigated longitudinally the performance development of a multigenerational sample of competitive swimmers. The aim of the study was to provide unique insight into the junior toward senior performance development of those few who reached top-elite level. Season Best Times (SBT) of 100 m freestyle performance of international swimmers, (1.305 males, aged 12-26 and 1.841 females, aged 12-24) competing in at least five seasons between 1993 and 2018, were corrected for the prevailing world record (WR). Swim performance was defined as a relative measure: relative Season Best Time=(SBT/WR) × 100. Based on rSBT, four performance groups were defined: top-elite, elite, sub-elite, and high-competitive.
resultsUnivariate analyses of variance showed that male top-elite swimmers outperformed high-competitive swimmers from the age of 12, sub-elite swimmers from the age of 14 and elite swimmers from the age of 18 while female top-elite swimmers outperformed high-competitive and sub-elite swimmers from the age of 12 and elite swimmers from the age of 14 (P < .05). Frequency analysis showed that male top-elite swimmers for the first time achieved top-elite level between the 17 and 24 years old (mean age of 21) while female top-elite swimmers started to perform at top-elite level between the 14 and 24 years old (mean age of 18).
conclusionMale and female top-elite swimmers are characterized by a high-performance level from 12 years on and progressively outperform swimmers from similar age. However, this goes together with a large variety in the individual pathways toward top-elite level within and between sexes.
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