Age of Peak Performance in Olympic Style Weightlifting: Insights into Olympian countries
Poster Presentation
Paper ID : 2151-SSRC
Authors
1Assistant Professor of Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran
2گروه طب ورزشی پژوهشگاه علوم ورزشی
Abstract
Background: Knowledge of the age at which elite athletes achieve peak performance could provide important information for long-term athlete development program event selection and strategic decisions regarding resource allocation. Previously, the average peak age of weightlifters was estimated at 26.0 years for men and 25.0 years for women. This general conclusion of performance, especially for top countries, will cause wrong estimates. The purpose of this study is to investigate the age of peak performance of weightlifters from Olympian countries.
Method: Competition results from the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Championships and the Olympic Games were included. Overall 3212 performance results –total records- of 339 man and 2147 performance results of 239 women were captured. All subjects were weightlifters from nine top countries in weightlifting including I.R. Iran, China, Armenia, Georgia, North Korea, South Korea, Poland, Russia, and the USA. To estimate the age at peak performance, a quadratic polynomial was fitted through the scatter plot of performance- age relationship, separately for men and women data. Peak points of the fitted curves, were recorded as age of peak performance.
Results: The equation of fitted polynomials were “performance = -0.48×age^2 +27.42×age+24.99” and “performance = -0.47×age^2 +24.73×age+88.74” and so the age of peak performance were estimated at 28.7 and 26.2 for men and women respectively.
Conclusion: The results indicated on the fact that men have higher peak age in weightlifting. However, the new finding of this study is that the age of peak performance is later for male and female athletes from top countries than previous findings. A possible explanation could be that socio-economic factors and specific physical adaptations that are related to geography influence the age of peak performances. Specific physical adaptations of human populations, associated with the physical nature of their native countries, translate into advantages in specific sports, as is reflected in top achievements in these fields. A more successful talent development program implemented in top countries could be another reason resulting to a longer progression of their weightlifters.
Method: Competition results from the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Championships and the Olympic Games were included. Overall 3212 performance results –total records- of 339 man and 2147 performance results of 239 women were captured. All subjects were weightlifters from nine top countries in weightlifting including I.R. Iran, China, Armenia, Georgia, North Korea, South Korea, Poland, Russia, and the USA. To estimate the age at peak performance, a quadratic polynomial was fitted through the scatter plot of performance- age relationship, separately for men and women data. Peak points of the fitted curves, were recorded as age of peak performance.
Results: The equation of fitted polynomials were “performance = -0.48×age^2 +27.42×age+24.99” and “performance = -0.47×age^2 +24.73×age+88.74” and so the age of peak performance were estimated at 28.7 and 26.2 for men and women respectively.
Conclusion: The results indicated on the fact that men have higher peak age in weightlifting. However, the new finding of this study is that the age of peak performance is later for male and female athletes from top countries than previous findings. A possible explanation could be that socio-economic factors and specific physical adaptations that are related to geography influence the age of peak performances. Specific physical adaptations of human populations, associated with the physical nature of their native countries, translate into advantages in specific sports, as is reflected in top achievements in these fields. A more successful talent development program implemented in top countries could be another reason resulting to a longer progression of their weightlifters.
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