Participation-related relative age effects in Masters swimming: A 6-year retrospective longitudinal analysis

Abstract

Abstract Medic and colleagues (Medic, Starkes, & Young, 2007 Medic, N., Starkes, J. L. and Young, B. W. 2007. Examining relative age effects on performance achievement and participation rates of Masters athletes. Journal of Sports Sciences, 25: 1377–1384. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) found that relatively younger cohorts of Masters athletes had higher participation rates and achieved higher performances compared with a relatively older cohort. Considering that Medic and colleagues' (2007) study was cross-sectional in nature, the purpose of this investigation was to employ a retrospective longitudinal study design to examine the participation rates of Masters swimmers as a function of an individual's constituent year within any 5-year age category over a period of 6 years. Using archived data from the 2003 to 2009 US Masters Short Course National Championships, swimmers' attendance was followed for a period of six consecutive years. Results indicated that a participation-related relative age effect was observed among swimmers who, over a period of 6 years, competed in either at least one championship (N = 2596; Cochran's Q 4 = 64.16, rs = −0.92, both P < 0.0001) or at least three championships (N = 441; Cochran's Q 4 = 47.51, rs = −0.91, both P < 0.0001). Overall, effect size analyses indicated that the odds of a Masters swimmer participating in the championship during the first constituent year of any 5-year age category was more than two times greater than the odds of that athlete participating during the fifth constituent year.