AUTHOR=Born Dennis-Peter , Romann Michael , Lorentzen Jenny , Zumbach David , Feldmann Andri , Ruiz-Navarro Jesús J. 

TITLE=Sprinting to the top: comparing quality of distance variety and specialization between swimmers and runners

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sports and Active Living

VOLUME=6

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sports-and-active-living/articles/10.3389/fspor.2024.1431594

DOI=10.3389/fspor.2024.1431594

ISSN=2624-9367

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Objectives</title><p>To compare performance progression and variety in race distances of comparable lengths (timewise) between pool swimming and track running. Quality of within-sport variety was determined as the performance differences between individual athletes' main and secondary race distances across (top-) elite and (highly-) trained swimmers and runners.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>A total of 3,827,947 race times were used to calculate performance points (race times relative to the world record) for freestyle swimmers (<italic>n</italic> = 12,588 males and <italic>n</italic> = 7,561 females) and track runners (<italic>n</italic> = 9,230 males and <italic>n</italic> = 5,841 females). Athletes were ranked based on their personal best at peak performance age, then annual best times were retrospectively traced throughout adolescence.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Performance of world-class swimmers differentiates at an earlier age from their lower ranked peers (15–16 vs. 17–20 year age categories, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05), but also plateaus earlier towards senior age compared to runners (19–20 vs. 23 + year age category, <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05), respectively. Performance development of swimmers shows a logarithmic pattern, while runners develop linearly. While swimmers compete in more secondary race distances (larger within-sport variety), runners specialize in either sprint, middle- or long-distance early in their career and compete in only 2, 4 or 3 other race distances, respectively. In both sports, sprinters specialize the most (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05). Distance-variety of middle-distance swimmers covers more longer rather than sprint race distances. Therefore, at peak performance age, (top-) elite female 200 m swimmers show significantly slower sprint performances, i.e., 50 m (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001) and 100 m (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001), but not long-distance performances, i.e., 800 m (<italic>P</italic> = 0.99) and 1,500 m (<italic>P</italic> = 0.99). In contrast, (top-) elite female 800 m middle-distance runners show significantly slower performances in all their secondary race distances (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.001). (Top-) elite female athletes specialize more than (highly-) trained athletes in both sports (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05).</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusions</title><p>The comparison to track running and lower ranked swimmers, the early performance plateau towards senior age, and the maintenance of a large within-sport distance variety indicates that (top-) elite sprint swimmers benefit from greater within-sport specialization.</p></sec>