• Posted July 25, 2024

Is There a Peak Performance Age for Olympians?

The Olympics are often described as a rare, once-in-a-lifetime shot at international sports glory.

That may be more true for Olympic track and field competitors than other athletes, a new study reports.

There appears to be a peak performance age for track and field athletes, who specialize in running, jumping and throwing events, researchers report.

It turns out that the peak age for these athletes is 27.

After age 27, there’s only a 44% chance that an athlete’s peak is still ahead of them, results show. That number drops every subsequent year.

What’s more, the average age of Olympic track and field athlete has remained remarkably consistent over the past three decades -- just under 27.

“Because the Olympics occur only once every four years, track and field athletes must carefully consider when and how they should train to maximize their probability of qualifying for the Olympics while at their personal peak,” said lead researcher David Awosoga, a master’s student in data science at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

For the study, researchers analyzed year-by-year career performance data from every track and field athlete at the Olympics since the 1996 games in Atlanta. The team considered each athlete’s gender, nationality, event type and training level.

Researchers focused on track and field because for many of these athletes, the Olympics offers the best chance to display their prowess, Awosoga said.

“Unlike other Olympic sports such as soccer and tennis that have their own high-profile competitions outside of the Games, the Olympics is the largest stage upon which track-and-field athletes compete,” Awosoga said in a university news release.

However, age isn’t the only factor in an athlete’s peak, noted co-researcher Matthew Chow, an undergraduate economics student at the University of Waterloo.

Athletes tend to perform better, regardless of age, in years where they are competing for a place in an upcoming Olympics, researchers found.

For example, five-time Olympian Kim Collins of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies set a personal best in the 100-meter dash at age 40, researchers noted. Collins ran the dash in 9.93 seconds while competing for a spot at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“What’s really exciting is that we also found that knowing it’s an Olympic year actually helps predict an athlete’s performance,” Chow said.

Researchers hope their analysis can help athletes bring their best to the games.

“You can’t change the year of the Olympics, your genetics, or your nationality, but you might modify your training regimes to better align with these biological and external factors,” Awogosa said.

The results, published in the journal Significance, also provide an appreciation for how hard it is to make the Olympics, Chow added.

“When we watch track-and-field athletes compete, we are witnessing a statistical anomaly: someone who is both at the peak of their physical performance, while also benefiting from extremely fortuitous timing,” Chow said.

More information

The National Academy of Sports Medicine has more about athletic training.

SOURCE: University of Waterloo, news release, July 24, 2024