Influence of early specialization in world-ranked swimmers and general patterns to success

Abstract

Objectives The primary goal was to examine the influence of early specialization on the performance of senior elite swimmers. Secondly, to provide information about the influence of swim style, distance, sex, status, country, years of high-level competition (YHLC) and age in swimmer’s performance. Design Data was obtained from International Federation of Swimming (FINA) regarding the participants 2006–2017 of junior and senior World Championships (WCs). The final filtered database included 4076 swimmers after removing those participating only in junior WCs. Method Cramer V coefficient, double and triple-entry tables were used to measure the relationship between the positions occupied in junior and senior phases. A One-Way ANOVA analysis was used to explain the variables time and rank between swimmers who participated in junior and senior WC or just in senior in all the distances and swim styles (SS). A univariate general linear model (GLM) was used to examine the association between time/rank and category (swimmers that participated previously in junior WC or not); YHLC; country; status (highest finishing position: final/semi-final/heats) and age. Results Significant differences (p < .001) were found in the GLM, with Rank as dependent variable, for all the variables. Showing that swimmers that participated previously in junior categories obtained greater results in all the interactions, except in 1500m freestyle. Significant differences (p < .001) were found between the variables position and YHLC, showing the variable position improvements as swimmers attended more WCs. Conclusion Competing in junior WC has a positive influence in achieve posteriori success in FINA WC. YHLC have a positive impact to achieve better positions.

Analysis of World Championship Swimmers Using a Performance Progression Model

“…The strong relationship between the number of years competing in the WC and the position achieved in senior WC races has been reported previously (Allen et al, 2014;Yustres et al, 2017Yustres et al, , 2019. These studies showed that no significant differences were found between years of high-level competition YHLC for swimmers participating in CM Junior prior to their participation in CM Absolute and those directly participating in CM Absolute.…”

“…Athlete development has been described in many studies as an ascending scale and predicted improvements have been made using a linear model or pyramid (Barreiros et al, 2014;Green, 2015). Although reaching a final at the junior WC was not related to success in the senior WC (Yustres et al, 2017), participating (without reaching a final) in junior WC has a positive effect on superior performances in subsequent senior WC (Yustres et al, 2019). These results support the idea that swimming success is achieved through a gradual and progressive scale of talent development.…”

“…A higher number of WC representations was related to higher positions at the senior WC (odds = 1.85). Swimmers who participate in junior international events are more likely to achieve better positions at the senior WC (Yustres et al, 2019).…”

“…Many studies have recently focused on junior performance levels and their impact on long-term potential (Sokolovas et al, 2006;Costa et al, 2010Costa et al, , 2011Allen et al, 2015;Yustres et al, 2017;Kearney and Hayes, 2018). It has been suggested that a high level of junior race performance is a pre-requisite in becoming a successful senior athlete (Svendsen et al, 2018;Yustres et al, 2019).…”

“…If early performance achievement is a pre-requisite for senior elite success (Neeru et al, 2013;Green, 2015;Yustres et al, 2019), an important objective of long-term development models is to encourage swimmers to compete at an early stage in their career and sustain their involvement in the sport. If this is done correctly, the greater number of years competing in WC improves the subsequent positions achieved in the senior Championships (Yustres et al, 2019).…”