Relative Age And Sports Performance In Elite Athletes According To Gender And Sport Modality

The effect of relative age is a topic to consider in the selection of elite athletes to ensure that a good detection of sporting talents is being carried out during the athlete's growth and maturation phase. PURPOSE: Evaluate the relationship of relative age with sport performance of elite athletes according to gender and sports modality of sports and to evaluate differences between men and women. METHODS: We analyzed the data of 1285 athletes who were selected and attended the High Performance National Center in Chile between 1992 and 2017. The athletes came from different sports disciplines which were divided into Combat Sports, Sports with Ball, Strength and Resistance and Art and Precision sports. Only athletes presenting complete data on date of birth and sports discipline were included, while all Paralympic athletes were excluded. The age of the athletes varied from 8 to 49 years old, with a total of 59.4% men. With the data of month of birth and sports discipline we organized athletes in 4 quartiles. Athletes were classified by sport discipline and gender, and statistical analysis was carried out through Chi square to see differences between the groups. RESULTS: No effect of relative age was observed in the overall sample, however there was a slight decrease in those born in the 4th quartile, with a total of 23% of the total births, without significant differences between the quartiles without variation when analyzing by gender and sports performance. Of the 4 sports disciplines, Strength and Resistance and Combat sport showed an increase of those born in the first quartil and a decrease of those born in the last 3 months of the year, without significant differences between the groups. In sports with a balloon, this effect was not observed, while in Art and Precision sports a slight increase was observed in those born in the last months. CONCLUSIONS: Although an effect of relative age was not observed in elite athletes who train in High Performance Center in Santiago, an important decrease was found in those born in the last 3 months, especially in strength and endurance and combat sports, leaving the doubt if younger athletes are being considered during the selection of sports talents and if they are having the same opportunities to compete as their peers who were born a few months earlier.