An Inverse Relative Age Effect in Male Alpine Skiers at the Absolute Top Level.

Øyvind Bjerke,Tore K Aune,Arve Vorland Pedersen,Håvard Lorås

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01210

Øyvind Bjerke, Tore K Aune + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01210

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Abstract

The Relative Age Effect (RAE) can be described as the advantage of being born early after a certain cut-off date within a group of selection. The effect has been found across a wide range of sports and is particularly evident in pre-elite sports and team sports with a high selection pressure. At the absolute top level in team elite sports, the advantage of being relatively older has been reported to disappear, and even reverse, so that the relatively younger athletes are advantaged. In order to further examine such a reversal of the RAE, we investigated the performance of the overall top 50 skiers each year in the alpine World Cup, over a period of 20 years, among men (N = 234) and women (N = 235). The data indicated that the relatively younger male athletes at the absolute top level had accumulated, on average, more World Cup points compared to the relatively older skiers. No such effect was observed among the female skiers. This finding suggest the existence of a reversed relative age effect in male elite alpine skiing.

Highlights

The relative age effect (RAE) refers to the advantage of being born early after a cut-off date in an annual group
Since the Relative Age Effect (RAE) has been shown to diminish at the top level in alpine skiing, and may not even exist within the technical disciplines, the aim of the present study was to examine whether we could find a reversed RAE at the absolute top level in alpine skiing
The skiers originated from 19 and 21 different nationalities for men and women, respectively, Data were collected from the Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS) website (FIS, 2014)

Summary

Introduction

The relative age effect (RAE) refers to the advantage of being born early after a cut-off date in an annual group Such grouping is a usual way to organize sport activities (Musch and Grondin, 2001). One explanation for the RAE, is that the relatively older athletes are born nearly 1 year before the youngest in a cohort, being more mature, stronger, and faster than their counterparts (Musch and Grondin, 2001) These athletes receive more attention, better training facilities and more training time compared with their peers (Helsen et al, 2005). This explanation is supported by findings of junior elite athletes who are higher, heavier, and stronger than their peers (Musch and Grondin, 2001; Sherar et al, 2007)

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