Opinion

Donnelly, P. M.

doi:10.1016/s1440-2440(00)80001-8

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…It is an interesting phenomenon that athletes originating from a specific region or country are dominating certain sports disciplines [ 1 ]. In running, for example, athletes originating from Jamaica have historically dominated in sprint events (100 m, 200 m and 400 m) [ 2 ], whereas athletes from East Africa (i.e., Ethiopia and Kenya) are some of the fastest runners over middle distance [ 3 ] and the marathon distance [ 4 , 5 ]. Interestingly, runners from Russia have been recently shown to consistently outperform ultra-runners from other regions in 100 km ultra-marathons [ 6 ] and the Comrades Marathon [ 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, within Jamaica, sprint athletes predominantly originated from the Surrey County, whilst middle distance athletes were found to be over-represented from the Middlesex County [ 2 ]. Similarly, among East African runners, most national and international Kenyan athletes came from the Rift Valley province [ 3 , 8 ], and Ethiopian marathoners originated mainly from the regions of Arsi and Shewa [ 9 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Italians Are the Fastest 3000 m Open-Water Master Swimmers in the World

Seffrin

Lira

Vancini

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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Background: It is well known that athletes originating from a specific region or country can master specific sports disciplines (e.g., East-African runners in long-distance running). In addition, physical and athletic performance are the result of an interaction between genetic, environmental and epigenetic factors. However, little is known about on what determines sports success and performance for long-distance master swimmers such as origin. The aim of the study was to investigate the participation and performance trends of elite master open-water swimmers competing in the World Championships (WC) in 3000 m open-water swimming between 1986 and 2019. Methods: A total of 9247 valid participants were analyzed using generalized linear models (GLMs) with a gamma probability distribution and log link function. Resultsː Most of the starters were from Italy (1646 participations), followed by the United States of America (USA) (1128 participations) and Germany (959 participations). Swimmers from Italy were significantly faster than swimmers from Canada, Germany, USA, Great Britain and also from all other countries grouped (p < 0.005). The age group from 35–39 years old was significantly faster than athletes from age groups of 25–29 years old, 30–34 years old, 40–44 years old, 45–49 years old and 50–54 years old (p < 0.005). The percentage of local athletes in WC was 36% and varied from 36% (Italy, 2004) to 43 % (Germany), 53% (Italy, 2012) and up to 68 % (USA, 1992). Conclusions: Swimmers from Italy were the faster and the most numerous starters during this period of 27 years and 15 editions all over the world in 3000 m master open-water swimming.

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