Morphology and performance of world championship triathletes

Abstract

Performance is related to body morphology in many sports. With triathlon making its debut into the Olympic programme in 2000, it was deemed important to determine which physical characteristics of elite-level triathletes were significantly related to performance. Seventy-one elite and junior elite triathletes, from 11 nations, competing at the 1997 World Triathlon Championships were measured on a battery of 28 anthropometric dimensions. A factor analysis was conducted, which reduced the number of variables to four and these were used in a stepwise linear regression to determine which morphological factors were important to performance. Elite triathletes were significantly (p < 0.05) faster than their junior counterparts (males 1:52:26 vs. 2:03:23 and females 2:07:01 vs. 2:14:05) and showed less variation in performance times. Run time variation was the largest of the component disciplines and tended to show the importance of this discipline to the final outcome. Following a factor analysis the four distinguishable morphological factors that emerged were: robustness, adiposity, segmental lengths and skeletal mass. Relating these factors to the total time obtained by the triathletes in this study yielded a regression equation that correlated significantly with all triathletes, accounting for 47% of the variance in total triathlon duration. The regression equations illustrated the importance of low levels of adiposity for elite triathletes for total time and most of the subdisciplines. The other factor that showed importance was that proportionally longer segmental lengths contributed to successful swimming outcome.

Predicting Elite Triathlon Performance: A Comparison of Multiple Regressions and Artificial Neural Networks

“…The mean and standard deviation of normalized overall race time in Olympic distance triathlon for male triathletes (6827.57 ± 192.56 [s]; approximately 1:54 h) calculated in this study were comparable to those reported by Landers et al (2000). A closer look at the Top 10 ranked athletes in the WTS from 2009 until 2012 showed that the mean ± SD of overall race time were consistent with the values used, considering that German elite triathletes commonly have a Top 20 position in WTS races.…”

“…This could possibly be a drawback of subjective assessments compared to the exploratory factor analysis as a purely statistical approach, which sorted out VO 2 max. Landers et al (2000) underlined the importance of identifying parameters predicting race performance. Besides potentially supporting the creation of new training programs, the information provided by performance prediction models could also be used in the field of talent diagnostics.…”

“…It is therefore important to identify performance parameters predicting triathlon race performance (Landers, Blanksby, Ackland, & Smith, 2000), such as anthropometric and physiological parameters based on laboratory tests (Schabort, Killian, St Clair Gibson, Hawley, & Noakes, 2000).…”

Anthropometric profile, body composition and somatotyping of national Iranian cross-country runners

“…There are many different factors influencing performance in endurance exercise (17). Apart from physiological parameters, several anthropometric parameters show an association with endurance performance such as body mass (2,26), body mass index (BMI), body fat (1,21), length of the upper leg (29), length of limbs (19), body height (2), circumference of thigh (29), total skin-fold thickness (2) and skin-fold thickness of the lower limb (1,21).…”

Características antropométricas y funcionales de corredores colombianos de élite de larga distancia

“…Mundialmente, el atletismo es una de las disciplinas deportivas más destacadas, para la cual se han hecho diferentes mediciones antropométricas y morfológi-cas (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10). Al comparar los resultados de este estudio con los de corredores de mediofondo españoles de nivel nacional o internacional (10), se puede afirmar que el promedio de peso corporal, porcentaje graso y porcentaje muscular fueron superiores a los reportados en este estudio.…”