Relative age effects refer to the effects of age differences among individuals who have been grouped together for a performance activity. This study aimed to investigate the relative age effect on Olympic Taekwondo athletes, in several Olympic Games, and in both sexes. The study sample consisted of 291 athletes who had competed in Atlanta, Sydney, and Beijing Olympic Games. The relative age effect was examined for the general distribution of athletes by quartile, for each of the individuals, and for male and female athletes. There were no discernable effects of relative age on Olympic Taekwondo athletes.

IntroduçãoIndivíduos com desempenhos excepcionais são reconhecidos por suas vitórias. No entanto, ao avaliar apenas o resultado final de um atleta, e não a sua trajetória desde o primeiro dia de prática esportiva, pode-se cometer uma interpretação erronia deste desempenho. Dessa forma, compreender os fatores que norteiam atletas experts é de fundamental importância para a compreensão da excelência no esporte. JANELLE, 1999;BAKER et al., 2003). A perspectiva genética afirma que o indivíduo possui uma carga genética que define e destaca as diferenças de uma pessoa da outra, que são fundamentais para se atingir níveis excepcionais de desempenho. Já a perspectiva ambiental argumenta que o ambiente é o principal fornecedor das forças intervenientes para o Motriz, Rio Claro, v.18 n.1, p.130-142, jan./mar. 2012 Artigo Original Nadadores medalhistas olímpicos: contexto do desenvolvimento brasileiro Olympic Medal-winning swimmers: The Brazilian context of developmentAbstract: Expertise as a field is one that studies the authenticity of the expert, meaning the skill or knowledge level he or she has in a certain field, such as athletics. Different models, from the ambient perspective, judge factors that influence the development of the expert. The aim of this study was to verify the context in which Brazilian swimmers develop, specifically those who have won an olympic medal. Eight swimmers who have won at least one medal in any category of the Olympic games were interviewed. The transcripts of the interviews were recorded, after which a qualitative analysis using Meaning -Units (MUs). 218 MUs were classified as follows: when the athlete's career began, the presence of coaches, the influence of family and friends, and deliberated practice. From the results, it can be concluded that the context of development contributed fundamentally to the evolution of the athletes. The diverse realities show that there is not a necessary pattern needed to restrict excellency.

This study assessed the relative age effect (RAE) in judo athletes who participated in the Olympic Games from 1964 to 2012. The names and birthdates of the Olympic judo athletes were collected from open-access websites. Data from male (n=1,762) and female (n=665) competitors were analyzed separately. Chi-squared tests were performed to investigate REA in medalists, and by weight categories and sexes. When the analyses used semesters to divide the period when the athletes were born, a RAE was found in male heavyweight athletes and male medallists. Thus, in a selected group of judo athletes who had participated at the highest competitive level, RAEs were present in both athletes who won Olympic medals and heavyweight athletes in the male group.

The organizing committee of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games recently announced that some of the preliminary and final competitions will be held at night. The present article discusses the potential harmful effects of these late-night competitions on sleep, circadian rhythms and athletic performance during the Olympic Games. Specifically, night-time competition could lead to injury and may compromise an athlete's decision-making, attentional, physiological and other processes. Consequently, these impacts could negatively affect the performance of athletes and their teams. Thus, it is suggested that technical commissions take special care when creating strategies to minimize harm to the athletes by considering factors such as light exposure, melatonin intake, sleep hygiene and scheduled naps, and training at local competition time. Furthermore, it is necessary for specialists in chronobiology and sleep to engage with members of the national teams to develop an activity schedule for physical, technical, tactical and psychological preparation that accounts for circadian rhythms, thereby creating the best possible environment for the athletes to achieve their ideal performance.

The relative age of athletes has raised the attention of many researchers. The focus of these investigations understands the interference of this parameter in the identification of talents and the training of future elite athletes. Thus, the aim of this paper was to to evaluate and compare the existence of differences between semesters and birth date quartiles in professional soccer participating in the Brazilian Soccer Championship Series A (1 st division) and B (2 nd division) in 2008. Fourty clubs that participated in the Brazilian Soccer Championship Series A and B were evaluated, totalizing 1022 players (483 players in the 1 st division and 539 players in the 2 nd division). The players were grouped per birth date into year quartiles and semesters. The data showed that there was a preference of clubs from the two championship series for hiring athletes born in the 1 st semester. Further, differences were absent only between quartiles 2 and 3 and a clubs` preference for 1 st quartile athletes was also observed. We can conclude that the relative age stands out as a variable in the elite soccer athlete selection and training, as the comparisons show the clubs` preference for athletes born early in the year.