Age-related Changes In Para-athletics And Racing Wheelchair Performance

Abstract

PURPOSE: How aging affects para-athletics performance? During the last decades, following the motto “Citius, Altius, Fortius”, all the para-athletic categories have significantly increased their performance levels. Such an improvement is not only reached by highly optimized prosthetics, but also by a gradual improvement on training, of nutrition, and recovery methods. Few studies have investigated the performance determinants in para-athletics. We studied the effect of age on maximal performances for racing wheelchair- and para-athletes. METHODS: We collected data on the 53,554 results from previous international competitions between 2009 and 2017 for women and men para-athletics and racing wheelchair disciplines for a total of 472 sport’ disciplines (considering impairment types for each discipline). We fitted maximal performance by age through the validated Moore equation for each para-athletics and racing wheelchair disciplines. RESULTS: We found a similar age-related pattern in maximal performance between able-bodied, para-athletes and wheelchair athletes. However, the age of peak performance varies according to sex, impairment type and discipline. The top 100 best performances include a large age range (from 15 years to 55 years) in each discipline suggesting that performance haven’t probably been optimized yet for most elite racing wheelchair and para-athletes. Maximal performance differences appear for running disciplines between the two categories: in sprinting disciplines para-athletes are faster than wheelchair athletes. To the contrary, para-athletes are slower than wheelchair athletes in endurance discipline, and the difference increases with distance CONCLUSIONS: Data reveal that only a few disabilities classes contributed to the maximal performance both in para-athletes and racing wheelchair discipline. Furthers studies will contribute to increase knowledge about age-related changes in para-athletes and racing wheelchair athletes.