Performance Trends in Age Group Breaststroke Swimmers in the FINA World Championships 1986-2014

Abstract

Performance trends in breaststroke swimmers competing at world class level in pool competitions are well investigated for elite swimmers, but not for age group swimmers. This study investigated trends in participation, performance and sex difference in performance in a total of 35,143 (16,160 women and 18,983 men) age group breaststroke swimmers aged 25-29 to 95-99 years competing in the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) World Masters Championships between 1986 and 2014. Trends in participation were analysed using linear regression analyses and trends in performance were investigated using mixed-effects regression analyses with sex, distance and calendar year as fixed variables. Women and men improved performance in all age groups. For age groups 25-29 to 85-89 years, men were faster than women. For age groups 90-94 to 95-99 years, men were not faster than women. Sex and distance showed a significant interaction for all distances in age groups 25-29 to 80-84 years. In 50 m, women reduced the gap to men in age groups 40-44 to 70-74 years and in 100 m and 200 m, women reduced the gap in age groups 50-54 to 60-64 years. In summary, (i) women and men improved performance in all race distances and in all age groups, (ii) men were faster than women from 25 to 89 years, but not from 90 to 99 years, and (iii), women reduced the gap to men between ~40 and ~75 years, but not in younger (<40 years) or older (>75 years) age groups. Based on these findings for a time period of nearly 30 years, we may assume a further increase in participation and a further improvement in performance in the near future in age group breaststroke swimmers competing at world class level.

Performance Trends in Master Butterfly Swimmers Competing in the FINA World Championships

“…This confirms previous findings for other master athletes such as master marathon runners (Lepers and Cattagni, 2012) and master swimmers (Akkari et al, 2015; Medic et al, 2009). Also in freestyle (Knechtle et al, 2016a), backstroke (Unterweger et al, 2016) and breaststroke (Knechtle et al, 2016b), female and male master swimmers improved race times across years in all age groups and distances. However, this study shows that also octogenarians and nonagenarians improved their performance in swimming, since in the studies of Akkari et al (2015) and Lepers and Cattagni (2012), the oldest athletes were younger than 80 years.…”

“…For backstroke swimmers, there was no consistent trend in the men-to-women ratio (Unterweger et al, 2016). In breaststroke swimmers, the men-to-women ratio remained unchanged for 50 m, 100 m and 200 m (Knechtle et al, 2016b). …”

Performance trends in age‐group runners from 100 m to marathon—The World Championships from 1975 to 2015

“…2 However, we have only very limited knowledge about the changes in performance in the last decades in age-group runners (ie, master runners older than 35 years) in track running. 3 In other sports disciplines such as pool swimming, master athletes increased participation and improved performance in freestyle, 4 breaststroke, 5 and backstroke 6 swimming. Interestingly, older women (ie, older than 80-90 years) were not slower than older men.…”

“…Interestingly, older women (ie, older than 80-90 years) were not slower than older men. [4][5][6] Participation and performance trends in running were mainly investigated for marathon running where preferably large city marathons such as the "New York City Marathon" and other races of the "World Marathon Majors" were analyzed. 7,8 Several studies demonstrated that female and male master runners increased participation 7-10 and improved performance [7][8][9] in marathon running compared to younger age-groups.…”

Swimming Three Ice Miles within Fifteen Hours

“…Swimming races are mainly held as indoor pool competitions (18,30), but can also be held as openwater competitions. Open-water swimming, such as the 'English Channel Crossing', is of increasing popularity (8).…”