ReviewOrthopaedic journal of sports medicine2022
Youth Sports Specialization and Its Effect on Professional, Elite, and Olympic Athlete Performance, Career Longevity, and Injury Rates: A Systematic Review.
Review in Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Role of Training Age and Sport Specialization in Achieved Selection Tier in Adolescent Handball Talents.Sports medicine - open · 2026Article
- Ultrasonographic Knee Abnormalities and Their Association with Pain in Young Male Handball and Basketball Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Study.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- "Too much, too soon?" Early professional match exposure and career sustainability: a 10-year multileague cohort of professional female soccer players.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2026Article
- The Role of Anthropometry in Decision-Making for Injury Prevention Among Elite Flag Football Players.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Sport-Specific Testing and Training Methods in Youth.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- ACL injuries in skeletally immature athletes.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Review
- Can the Physical Development Trajectories of Rugby League Players at Different Age Groups Inform the Talent Pathway? A Multi-Club Study of 261 Players.European journal of sport science · 2026Article
- Burnout, recovery, and flow in youth high-performance athletes: a multilevel mixed-methods examination of mental health and psychological functioning in Chinese athletes.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of progressive core stabilization training on anaerobic performance in elite athletes: a randomized controlled trial.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Influence of Biological Maturation on the Career Trajectory of Football Players: Does It Predict Elite Success?Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2025Article
- Sports injuries in elite football players: classification, prevention, and treatment strategies update.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2025Review
- Professional Baseball Pitchers Use of Weighted Ball Training, Injury Incidence, and Time Loss: A Preliminary Study.International journal of sports physical therapy · 2025Article
- Exploring developmental factors influencing performance excellence in twice-exceptional Saudi athletes: a case study of Paralympic champions.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Effects of Early Sport Specialization on Injury Load Management and Athletic Success of National Basketball Association Players.Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine · 2025Article
- Youth Sport Specialization: Current Concepts and Clinical Guides.HSS journal : the musculoskeletal journal of Hospital for Special Surgery · 2024Review
- Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Sports Injuries in 11,000 Japanese Collegiate Athletes.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- What makes a Grand Slam champion? Early engagement, late specialization and timely transition from having fun to dedication.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Limited data are available on the long-term consequences of early sports specialization in high-level athletes. Purpose: To evaluate the existing literature on the effects of sports specialization among professional, Olympic, and other elite athletes. Study Design: Systematic review; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: We performed a systematic review of studies from 1990 to 2021 on youth sports specialization in professional, elite, and/or Olympic athletes following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. An elite athlete was defined as one who performed at the highest level of his or her sport, beyond college level. Data were summarized according to 6 objectives: (1) definitions of specialization, age at specialization, and participation in other sports; (2) motivation for specialization; (3) athlete perspectives on specialization; (4) performance data; (5) specialization and injury risk; and (6) career longevity. Results: From 8756 articles, 29 studies were included, of which 17 (58.6%) were survey-based studies. Of the 8 articles that commented on injury risk, all demonstrated reduction in injury risk in athletes who delayed specialization. Performance benefits were apparent with later specialization in 7 of 9 articles; the remaining 2 showed benefit with earlier specialization in marathon runners and soccer players. There were less definitive results on career longevity, with 5 of 9 articles finding no association between career longevity and sports specialization. Conclusion: Although current data on sports specialization in elite, professional, and Olympic athletes are mostly retrospective and survey-based evidence, most sports demonstrate better performance after youth multisport engagement, and youth sports specialization was linked with increased injury risk in athletes at the highest levels of competition.
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Registered trials
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.