To succeed as youth athlete: Is it the dead end in track and field?
Open Access
- 8 July 2021
- journal article
- Published by Asian Research Association in International Journal of Physical Education, Fitness and Sports
Abstract
It is reasonable to believe that a young athlete who succeeds in a World Youth Championship, will also be successful as a senior athlete. To determine the percentage of success of all World Youth Championship finalists who also became finalists in a subsequent senior World Championship, considering all athletes and events at World Athletics Championships. This study analyzed the eight male and eight female finalists of all the events conducted at the World Athletics World Youth Championship from 1999 to 2009, who also became finalists at the World Athletics World Championship from 2001 to 2011. Percentage of success was calculated for track and field events, for male, female, and both. For all the events, from 1759 finalists in a World Youth Championship only 83, representing 4.72%, were also finalists in a World Championship in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, or 2011. Of those 83 athletes, 45 were males and 38 were female. A low rate of success was found. These results were discussed including injuries, early specialization, biological maturation, and/or overtraining, as possible factors related to this low rate of success.Keywords
This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- World-Class Sprinters’ Careers: Early Success Does Not Guarantee Success at Adult AgeInternational Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 2021
- Contextual factors and sporting success: The relationship between birth date and place of early development on the progression of Jamaican track and field athletes from junior to senior levelPLOS ONE, 2019
- Career Performance Progressions of Junior and Senior Elite Track and Field AthletesJournal of Science in Sport and Exercise, 2019
- Excelling at youth level in competitive track and field athletics is not a prerequisite for later successJournal of Sports Sciences, 2018
- Are the World Junior Championship Finalists for Middle- and Long-Distance Events Currently Competing at International Level?International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 2017
- The pathway to the top: Key factors and influences in the development of Australian Olympic and World Championship Track and Field athletesInternational Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 2017
- Career Performance Trajectories in Track and Field Jumping Events from Youth to Senior Success: The Importance of Learning and DevelopmentPLOS ONE, 2017
- Early Sport SpecializationOptometry and Vision Science, 2010
- What do we know about early sport specialization? Not much!High Ability Studies, 2009
- Os melhores atletas nos escalões de formação serão igualmente os melhores atletas no escalão sénior? Análise centrada nos rankings femininos das diferentes disciplinas do Atletismo ao longo das últimas duas décadas em PortugalRevista Portuguesa de Ciências do Desporto, 2004