Abstract
Master athletes have been widely used to examine the age-induced decline of human performance. However, so far very limited reviews are available consolidating the age-related differences in master swimming performance. The aim of the present review was to summarize existing knowledge about the age-related changes in three modalities of swimming performance (i.e., pool-swimming, open-water swimming and swim split in triathlons of different distances). In addition, the paradigm of freestyle swimming records from 50 to 1500 m was used to examine age-related differences and sex difference in performance for age groups 25–29 to 100–104 years. For this example of master freestyle swimmers, the sex difference was smaller in the longer events and increased significantly after the age of ∼70 years. In summary, master athletes competing in swimming as single discipline (i.e., pool-swimming and open-water) and in triathlon (i.e., swim split as first discipline) improved their performances across calendar years. The age-related performance decline in swimming seems to be specific to the discipline, the sex and the length of the swimming event.
Highlights
Competitive swimming is a sports discipline which can be performed in different swim strokes, over different distances and in both pools and open water
We summarise recent findings about the age-related performance decline in master swimming
The performance decline was less pronounced in road-based than offroad triathlon in swimming (≥ 65 years), cycling (≥ 50 years), running (≥ 60 years), and overall race time (≥ 55 years). These results suggest that the rate of the decline in performance in off-road triathlon is greater than roadbased triathlon, indicating that the type of discipline exerts an important influence on the magnitude of the age-associated changes in triathlon performance (Lepers & Stapley, 2011)
Summary
Competitive swimming is a sports discipline which can be performed in different swim strokes, over different distances and in both pools (i.e., indoor or outdoor) and open water (i.e., sea, lake, river). The different swim strokes are butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, frontcrawl and the combination of the four strokes as individual medley. In addition to these individual events, four swimmers can take part in either a freestyle or medley relay. Distances for butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle are commonly 50, 100 and 200 m whereas, individual medley is held over 200 and 400 m. We consider swimming as the single discipline in pool and open-water swimming, and as one of the three disciplines in triathlon For this purpose, the data base PubMed We extracted all relevant studies for swimming and where swimming was part in a multi-sports discipline event
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