Comparison Of Age Of Peak Swimming Speed In Elite Backstroke Swimmers At National And International Level
Like in most sports, an athlete’s age affects one’s performance, such as in terms of stamina and speed. There’s what we consider the age of peak swimming speed in elite backstroke swimmers.
Author:Suleman ShahReviewer:Han JuDec 18, 20231K Shares45.7K Views
Previous studies suggested that the age of peak performance in freestyle swimming was 17 years for women and 19 years for men.
Data on the age of peak swimming performance in other swim strokes such as backstroke are lacking.
The present study investigated the changes in swimming speed and age of peak swimming speed across years for elite female and male backstroke swimmers competing at both national and international levels.
Preliminary Discussion
Several studies analyzed the change of endurance performance with increasing age.
For endurance sports such as running, swimming, triathlon, or rowing, peak performance was described at the age of 35 years, with a linear decline in performance until the age of 70 years.
After the age of 70 years, the performance declined exponentially.
For swimmers, the age-related performance decline in freestyle swimming showed differences regarding the distance and the sex, with a greater decline in long-distance performances such as 1,500-meter freestyle and for women compared to men.
In a study published in The Journals of Gerontologyin 1988, its authors, Richard Schulz and Christine Curnow, reported that women generally achieved peak swimming performance at a younger age compared to men.
Literature, however, is discordant regarding the age of peak freestyle swimming performance in relation to different race distances.
For freestyle swimmers, the age of peak swimming performance was described at 21 years.
In a study published in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skillsin 2007, the author, Jeffrey T. Fairbrother, reported that male freestyle swimmers achieved the age of peak performance for 50 meters in their late 20s and early 30s.
For the 1,500-meter freestyle, the age of peak swimming performance was achieved at 18 years in contrast to the 50-meter distance, where the age of peak swimming speed was documented at 23 years.
Schulz and Curnow described a different development with a decline in the age of peak swimming performance with increasing race distance.
In a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiologyin 1985, Hirofumi Tanaka and Douglas R. Seals claimed that:
- men reached their fastest times for 1,500-meter freestyle swimming between 25 and 40 years of age
- women achieved the fastest 1,500-meter freestyle swimming times at the age of 30 to 35 years
In contrast, peak performance in 50-meter freestyle swimming was attained at the age of 20 to 30 years in both men and women.
In contrast to these disparate findings in swimming, data analyses of running showed an increase in the age of peak performance with increasing race distance.
The age of peak running performance has been investigated in:
- 100-meter and 200-meter short-distance running
- 800-meter and 1,500-meter middle-distance running
- half-marathon running
- marathon running
- ultra-marathon running
Analyzing the development of swimming performances of women compared to men, women’s performances constantly improved.
During the last century, a decline in the sex difference in performance for all swim disciplines from 22.9% in 1916 to 8.9% in 1979 was documented.
In a study published in the Open Access Journalof Sports Medicinein 2013, its authors analyzed the change in swimming speed and sex differencesin swimming speed for the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle and medley from 1994 to 2011.
Athletes of both sexes showed significant improvements in all disciplines across years with an increase of sex difference except for the 200-m medley.
Except for the aforementioned 2013 study, recent data about sex differences in swimming performance are lacking, and it would be interesting to investigate the development of sex differences in swimming performance in the last 30 years.
Furthermore, Schulz and Curnow investigated the age of peak swimming performance for freestyle, but data about different strokes such as backstroke were not considered.
Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the changes in swimming speed and age of peak swimming speed for both elite male and female swimmers at national and international levels in backstroke and freestyle from 1994 to 2011.
There is only a small amount of literature about backstroke swimming in contrast to freestyle swimming; moreover, literature about freestyle swimming includes a great variety of different freestyle swim events.
Therefore, there are limitations in the comparability of literature of swimming events.
Hence, we decided to compare backstroke with freestyle as an internal standard.
We hypothesized that:
a. the age of peak swimming speed of both elite Swiss swimmers and finalists at World Championships would decrease and swimming speed would increase over time for both women and men
b. the age of peak swimming speed would be lower for women compared to men for both backstroke and freestyle
To test this hypothesis, we analyzed swimming speed of the top swimmers at:
- national level (i.e., annual Swiss high score list)
- international level (i.e., finalists at World Championships, which occurs every four years)
Then we compared the age of the top 10 swimmers across years in backstroke and freestyle swimming for 50-meter, 100-meter and 200-meter, respectively.
Materials And Methods
The changes in age and swimming speed in 50 meters, 100 meters, and 200 meters were analyzed for elite backstroke and freestyle swimmers at national level (i.e., Switzerland) and international level (i.e., finalists of World Championships) on the 50-meter long course from 1994 to 2011.
All procedures used in the study met the ethical standards of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences and were approved by the Institutional Review Board of Kanton St. Gallen in Switzerland, with a waiver of the requirement for informed consent of the participants, given the fact that the study involved the analysis of publicly available data.
Data Sampling And Data Analysis
The data set from this study was obtained for national swimmers from the website of the Swiss Swimming Federation and for international swimmers from the International FINA-Ranking.
All swimmers from the Swiss swimming high score list between 1994 and 2011 and the finalists of the World Championships of the International FINA-Ranking on the 50-meter long course were analyzed regarding:
- swimming speed
- sex
- age
Data were available from 1994 to 2011 for 207,852 athletes at national level and 369 athletes at international level.
From the athletes competing at national level, the annual fastest race time and the race times of the annual top 10 athletes for the distances of 50-meter, 100-meter, and 200-meter in backstroke and freestyle were determined for both women and men.
For the swimmers competing at international level, the eight finalists were included.
When there were less than 10 male or female participants for a specific discipline in a year at national level, only the best annual performance was analyzed.
In order to compare the swimming performance between the disciplines and distances, race times were transformed to swimming speed (m/s) using the equation [race distance in meters]/[race time in seconds].
To compare male and female performances, the sex difference was calculated using the equation ([swimming speed in women] – [swimming speed in men])/[swimming speed in men] × 100, where sex difference was calculated for every pairing of equally placed athletes (e.g., between male and female first place, between male and female second place, etc.) before calculating the mean value and standard deviation (SD) of all the pairings.
In order to facilitate reading, all gender differences were transformed to absolute values before analyzing.
No athlete was included twice or several times in the same year because the Swiss Swimming Federation lists only the best performance per year of an athlete in the same year.
Statistical Analysis
In order to increase the reliability of data analyses, each set of data was tested for normal distribution as well as for homogeneity of variances in advance of statistical analyses.
Normal distribution was tested using a D’Agostino and Pearson omnibus normality test and homogeneity of variances was tested using a Levene’s test.
To find significant changes in a variable across years, single linear regression analysis was used.
Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Bonferroni post-hoc analysis was used to analyze differences between the annual top 10 women and men.
Statistical analyses were performed using:
- IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 19 and 21, IBM SPSS, Illinois, USA)
- GraphPad Prism (Version 5 and 6, GraphPad Software, California, USA)
Significance was accepted at P < 0.05 (two sided for t-tests). Data in the text are given as mean ± SD.
Results
For all distances and disciplines, women reached the age of peak swimming speed at a younger age (18 to 23 years) than men (21 to 26 years).
The age of peak swimming speed in backstroke and freestyle swimmers at national level was 1 to 2 years younger than in swimmers at international level.
The age of peak swimming speed increased significantly (P < 0.01) between 1994 and 2011 in 50-meter backstroke for women from 16 to 22 years and in 50-meter freestyle for men from 22 to 23 years in swimmers at national level.
No changes in the age of peak swimming speed were observed in swimmers at international level for both swim styles across time for both sexes (P > 0.05).
Swimming speed increased across years in all distances and disciplines except for 50-meter backstroke in women at international level (P > 0.05).
Change In The Age Of Peak Swimming Speed Across Years
In backstroke, women at national level achieved the age of peak swimming speed at a younger age (16 to 22 years) compared to women at international level (19 to 23 years).
Only in 50-meter backstroke in athletes competing at national level, a change in the age of peak swimming speed was observed from 16 to 22 years.
The age of peak swimming speed in backstroke was older for men than for women.
Furthermore, the age of peak swimming speed was older for swimmers at international level (23 to 26 years) than for swimmers at national level (21 to 23 years).
However, in backstroke, no changes in the age of peak swimming speed were observed across years.
The sex difference in swimming speed remained stable across the years, with the exception of 50-meter backstroke of national swimmers with a decline from 28.2% to 2.3% across years.
In freestyle, no changes in the age of the fastest swimming speed were observed for both sexes in all distances neither on national nor on international level.
Only in the 50-meter freestyle of men competing at national level, a significant decline from 23 to 22 years was observed.
However, again the age of the highest swimming speed was lower for swimmers competing at national level (women 18 to 21 years; men 21 to23 years) compared to athletes competing at international level (women 19 to 25; men 22 to 25 years).
While the sex differences in swimming speed declined significantly in all distances in athletes at national level (mean from 16.3% to 8.8%), the sex difference in swimming speed of athletes competing at international level remained unchanged across years (mean 17.1% to 14.3%; P > 0.05).
Change In Swimming Speed Across Years
The swimming speed increased across years, with the exception of the 50-meter backstroke for women competing at international level.
Women showed a smaller improvement in swimming speed than men, with a greater improvement in backstroke than in freestyle.
However, swimmers competing at national level showed greater changes in swimming speed compared to swimmers competing at international level.
The change in swimming speed depending on distance for women showed an improvement with a range from 4.4% to 8.5% in backstroke and from 2.4% to 2.8% in freestyle in swimmers competing at national level.
Women competing at international level showed a range from 3.3% to 3.7% in backstroke and from 1.8% to 3.0% in freestyle.
Men competing at national level, however, showed a range of improvement in swimming speed from 4.7% to 9.4% in backstroke and from 4.4% to 5.3% in freestyle, while male athletes competing at international level showed a range from 3.0% to 5.6% in backstroke and from 2.7% to 3.5% in freestyle.
However, due to a greater improvement in swimming speed in men compared to women, the sex difference in swimming speed increased in the 100-meter backstroke and all freestyle distances of swimmers at national level.
In swimmers at international level, the sex differences in swimming speed remained unchanged across years.
Main Discussion
The aim of this study was to examine the changes in swimming speed and the age of peak swimming speed for both elite male and female swimmers at national and international levels in backstroke versus freestyle from 1994 to 2011.
According to our hypothesis, women achieved peak swimming speed at a younger age than men in both disciplines and all distances.
During the studied period, peak swimming speed improved at a greater extent for men than for women in all distances and strokes on both national and international levels.
Women Achieved The Age Of Peak Swimming Speed At A Younger Age Than Men
A first important finding was that women achieved peak swimming speed in freestyle and backstroke at a younger age than men.
In all distances, women reached peak swimming speed at:
- 18 years in backstroke
- 19 years in freestyle
For men, peak swimming speed in 50 meters was achieved at:
- 20 years in backstroke
- 22 years in freestyle
- 21 years in 100 meters for both disciplines
These findings are in line with Schulz and Curnow investigating the age of peak performances in different sport events including different freestyle swimming events.
However, in the present study, athletes of both sexes achieved peak swimming speed in freestyle and backstroke at higher ages compared to previous data.
Schulz and Curnow found the age of peak swimming speed in freestyle for women at 17 years and for men at 19 years, respectively.
A potential explanation for these different findings might be the analyzed period of time.
Schulz and Curnow analyzed data from 1896 to 1980, while our results are based on data from 1994 to 2011.
They separated their data into a period before and after World War II:
- Men showed a decline in the age of peak swimming performance after World War II.
- Women showed an increase after World War II.
These changes across the last century can be explained by geopolitical differences and historical developments on the one hand and by developments in training techniques and improvement in swimming techniques related to a greater knowledge of biological and physiological processes on the other hand.
Swimming performances are related to specific body profile markers.
Therefore, changes in the age of fastest swimming speed can be related to changes in anthropometric patterns across time.
A variety of studies showed an increment on both body height and body weight among children over the last century in different countries, such as:
- Brazil
- China
- Japan
- Poland
- Turkey
This phenomenon seemed to be related to environmental and socioeconomic factors such as changes in optimized nutrition and improvement in healthand hygienic systems.
Furthermore, specific body profile markers of swimmers such as body height, length of extremities, and body weight were attributed to predict swimming performances in different swim events already at preadolescent age.
While sprint and backstroke swimmers were taller, heavier and showed longer extremities, short and light swimmers showed a better performance in long-distance and butterfly events.
In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology (JEB)in 2009, authors Jordan D. Charles and Adrian Bejan analyzed male champions in 100-meter freestyle swimming and 100-meter dash running from 1912 to 2008.
They described that during the last century, male champion swimmers became taller and heavier and achieved higher swimming speeds by producing more power due to optimal locomotion conditions.
Due to differences in body compositions of men and women, swimming performances of the sexes are related to different anthropometric markers.
In a study published in the International Journal of Sports Medicinein 2005, its authors analyzed predictor variables in freestyle swimming performance for men and women.
For male swimmers, the significant predictors for performances in freestyle swimming were:
- upper-extremity length
- horizontal jump
- grip strength
The value predictors for female swimmers were:
- body height
- upper extremity and hand length
- shoulder flexibility
- horizontal jump were T
Based on these facts, sex differences in swimming performance seemed to be influenced by the earlier onset of maturation in women compared to men.
These differences in development affect:
- bone growth
- development and distribution of body fat
Regarding bone growth, girls reach the maximum of all bone variables at a younger age than boys.
In a study published in the journal OsteoporosisInternationalin 2011, its authors described a difference of approximately two years between the growth of metacarpal bones between girls and boys.
Compared to an adult bone mineral content and volumetric density, at an age of 17 years:
- boys reach approximately 86%
- girls show 93%
However, the performance of swimmers between 14 and 16 years in 100-meter freestyle was partly predictable by anthropometry and physical capacity with lower value for boys and girls.
Besides different changes of the skeleton during puberty, boys and girls show a different development in body fat and muscle mass.
The change in both the proportion and the distribution of body fat seemed to influence swimming performance.
During puberty, girls develop more fat mass compared to boys, while both gain more muscle mass.
At the age of 11 years:
- boy sprint swimmers presented 9.4% fat
- girl sprint swimmers 12.7% fat
In the last stages of and after puberty, women obtain more fat mass.
As for percent body fat among adult swimmers:
- female - 14% to19%
- male - 5% to10%
The locations of body fat and body mass affect the centers of buoyancy, and this influences kick performance and swimming performances respectively.
Especially, women have proportionally more fatty tissue located caudally compared to men, and therefore, the center of buoyancy is different for the sexes.
Special training programs may help to reduce the proportion of body fat especially for women to improve their swim performances.
Sex Difference In Swimming Performance
Men achieved a higher swimming speed in all distances and disciplines than women, with higher swimming speeds in freestyle compared to backstroke.
Furthermore, swimming speed declined with increasing distance for all distances and disciplines on national and international levels.
For both sexes and all disciplines and distances, the swimming speeds of the international athletes were higher than of the national swimmers.
This finding is in line with existing literature.
Swimming speed depends on a variety of different patterns.
Besides anthropometric factors as mentioned, different physiological parameters and swimming techniques have an impact on swim speed.
Physiological patterns have an effect on swimming speed,such as:
- metabolic responses
- the ability of the body to adapt
The energy cost of a performance is related to the:
- oxygen consumption
- cardiopulmonary response
- metabolic adaptations
Analyzing the energy cost of different swimming styles, freestyle has a lower value than backstroke.
Men have a higher VO2max compared to women, but this difference disappears when normalizing to leg mass.
In a study published in the journal BMC Pediatricsin 2012, its authors analyzed the sex difference of physiological markers at maximal exercise stress.
Women showed significantly lower levels in the cardiopulmonary markers, such as:
- maximal systolic blood pressure
- ventilation
- ventilated lung volume
The maximal heart rate was similar between both sexes, but women performance is limited due to a longer rate-corrected QT interval (time of ventricular depolarizationand repolarization).
The metabolic factors such as blood pH, base excess and blood bicarbonate were similar between men and women with minimal lower levels of blood lactate for men.
These physiological factors seemed to be related to the different levels of muscle power of the sexes.
Men have a higher peak leg power compared to women mainly due to their higher lean leg volume.
In a study published in the journal Medicine & Sciencein Sports & Exercise (MSSE)in 2007, its authors analyzed kinematic changes during a 100-meter front crawl sprint for both sexes.
High-speed swimmers were characterized by a higher and more stable stroke length.
Men swim faster than women because of the greater body height and arm span.
The differences in swimming speed between international and national swimmers can firstly be related to the greater number of competitors with tighter concentration of the top athletes with top performances.
Secondly, international swimmers produce stability in performances with energetic and biomechanical capacities continuously.
Another finding was that the sex difference of national swimmers became greater across the years for 100-meter backstroke and all freestyle distances with no changes in international level.
Analyzing the change of the sex differences in all swimming events across time, the authors of a study published in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicinein 1983 found a balance in the sex difference in different world records since 1983.
With increasing distance, the sex difference became smaller but the levels of sex difference for all swim distances and disciplines are lower than in our data; however, this can be influenced by the greater period of the collected data.
In a study published in the International Journal of Sports Medicinein 2007, its four authors, who include Alan Michael Nevill, analyzed the100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle swimming world records from 1957 to 2006 and showed that the sex difference in freestyle remained stable between 8% and 11%.
The sex difference was:
- 11% (100-meter freestyle)
- 10% (200-meter freestyle)
- 9% (400-meter freestyle)
Due to these reasons, a further decline in sex difference might be observed in the future; however, women will not be able to reach the same level as men.
Improvement Of Swimming Speed Across Years
Our data showed that athletes of both sexes enhanced swimming speed in all distances and disciplines at both national and international levels over the analyzed period.
The improvement of swim speed throughout years is in agreement with the findings of Nevill and in the study published in PLOS Onein 2010.
The authors of the study published in PLOS Onein 2010, who include Geoffroy Berthelot, analyzed data of swimming events from 1963 to 2008, and despite other sports, e.g., track and field, performances in swimming still improved.
Nevill and his three co-authors analyzed world records in 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter front crawl swimming from 1957 to 2006.
They argued that the improvements between the 1950s and 1960s for men and between 1960s and 1970s for women were due to better coaching techniques based on better:
- physiological
- biomechanical
- psychological knowledge
The impact of the social historical bias in sex difference was great in the early twentieth century. However, biological factors are more important to understand the sex difference today.
Berthelot and his co-authors suggested that the age of peak performance might be confounded by introducing a new generation of swimsuits with better hydrodynamic characteristics.
In a study published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (JSCR)in 2011, authors Lanty M. O’Connor and John A. Vozenilek analyzed swimming performances of FINA World Championship in different strokes and distances from 1990 to 2011, with the aim to confirm the influence of technical improvement.
Due to the fact that the performances are limited, there were 43 new world records registered at the 2009 World Championship in Rome.
At the same time, the full-body polyurethane swimsuit was introduced.
O’Connor and Vozenilek claimed the new swimsuit as the main reason for these world records based on the fact that most world records still stand after excluding the full-body swimsuit in 2010.
The present data showed significant improvements in swimming speed across the analyzed period. Due to the small period, a plateau was not observed.
Limitations
This cross-sectional data analysis analyses and compares data of national and international swimmers during a period of 17 years.
However, it is limited due to lack of determination of body composition.
It is known that they interact with swimming performance.
Further studies should include data about:
- body height and weight
- body fat
- other anthropometric pattern
Information about nutrition and fluid intake was not recorded, which are known to influence individual performances.
Dependent on age and sex, individual demands on nutrition were described.
Furthermore, data about training strategies to improve swimming techniques to optimize recovery phases and warming-up phases, which have an effect on swimming performances were not registered.
Information about motivation and goal orientation was not recorded.
The following are supposed to influence performance:
- general gender-related differences in motivation
- the influence of perfectionism
- mental preparation strategies
Conclusion
The present results showed that for freestyle and backstroke and for swimming distances ranging from 50 meters to 200 meters, elite female swimmers competing at national and international levels achieved peak swimming speed at a younger age (18 to 23 years) compared to men (21 to 26 years).
Across the analyzed period, the sex differences in the age of peak swimming speed in backstroke decreased for 50 meters and for all distances in freestyle swimming for swimmers competing at national level, while no changes were found for athletes competing at international level.
The swimming speed improved over the years to a greater extent for men than for women in all distances and disciplines.
Future studies should include data about other swimming styles and the development in a greater variety of distances over a greater analyzed period of time.
That way, we can gather better information regarding the age of peak swimming speed in elite backstroke swimmers.
Suleman Shah
Author
Suleman Shah is a researcher and freelance writer. As a researcher, he has worked with MNS University of Agriculture, Multan (Pakistan) and Texas A & M University (USA). He regularly writes science articles and blogs for science news website immersse.com and open access publishers OA Publishing London and Scientific Times. He loves to keep himself updated on scientific developments and convert these developments into everyday language to update the readers about the developments in the scientific era. His primary research focus is Plant sciences, and he contributed to this field by publishing his research in scientific journals and presenting his work at many Conferences.
Shah graduated from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (Pakistan) and started his professional carrier with Jaffer Agro Services and later with the Agriculture Department of the Government of Pakistan. His research interest compelled and attracted him to proceed with his carrier in Plant sciences research. So, he started his Ph.D. in Soil Science at MNS University of Agriculture Multan (Pakistan). Later, he started working as a visiting scholar with Texas A&M University (USA).
Shah’s experience with big Open Excess publishers like Springers, Frontiers, MDPI, etc., testified to his belief in Open Access as a barrier-removing mechanism between researchers and the readers of their research. Shah believes that Open Access is revolutionizing the publication process and benefitting research in all fields.
Han Ju
Reviewer
Hello! I'm Han Ju, the heart behind World Wide Journals. My life is a unique tapestry woven from the threads of news, spirituality, and science, enriched by melodies from my guitar. Raised amidst tales of the ancient and the arcane, I developed a keen eye for the stories that truly matter. Through my work, I seek to bridge the seen with the unseen, marrying the rigor of science with the depth of spirituality.
Each article at World Wide Journals is a piece of this ongoing quest, blending analysis with personal reflection. Whether exploring quantum frontiers or strumming chords under the stars, my aim is to inspire and provoke thought, inviting you into a world where every discovery is a note in the grand symphony of existence.
Welcome aboard this journey of insight and exploration, where curiosity leads and music guides.
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