Increased participation and improved performance in age group backstroke master swimmers from 25–29 to 100–104 years at the FINA World Masters Championships from 1986 to 2014

SpringerPlus, May 2016

Participation and performance trends in age group athletes have been investigated for different sport disciplines, but not for master swimmers. The knowledge on this topic is still missing for a particular stroke such as backstroke. Changes in participation and performance of male and female age group backstroke swimmers (≥25 years) competing in 50, 100 and 200 m pool swimming at the FINA World Masters Championships held between 1986 and 2014 were investigated using mixed-effects regression analyses. The overall participation was n = 26,217 including n = 13,708 women and n = 12,509 men. In 50 m, female (age groups 85–89 years; p = 0.002) and male participation (age groups 55–59; p = 0.030 and 80–84 years; p = 0.002) increased, while female participation decreased in age groups 55–59 (p = 0.010) and 60–64 years (p = 0.050). In 100 and 200 m, participation increased in age groups 45–49, 50–54, 65–69, 70–74, 80–84 years. Swimmers in age groups 25–29 to 95–99 years improved performance over all distances. Women were slower than men in age groups 25–29 to 80–84 years, but not in age groups 85–89 to 95–99 years over all distances. In 50 m and 100 m, the sex difference decreased in age groups 40–44 (p = 0.007 and p = 0.005), 45–49 (p = 0.017 and p = 0.034), 50–54 (p = 0.002 and p = 0.040), to 55–59 years (p = 0.002 and p = 0.004). In 200 m, the sex difference decreased in age groups 40–44 (p = 0.044) and 90–94 (p = 0.011), but increased in age group 25–29 years (p = 0.006). In summary, in age group backstroke swimmers, (1) participation increased or remained unchanged (except women in age groups 55–59 and 60–64 years in 50 m), (2) swimming performance improved in all age groups from 25–29 to 95–99 years over all distances, (3) men were faster than women in age groups 25–29 to 80–84 years (except age groups 85–89 to 95–99 years) over time and all distances.

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Increased participation and improved performance in age group backstroke master swimmers from 25–29 to 100–104 years at the FINA World Masters Championships from 1986 to 2014

Unterweger et al. SpringerPlus (2016) 5:645 DOI 10.1186/s40064-016-2209-2 Open Access RESEARCH Increased participation and improved performance in age group backstroke master swimmers from 25–29 to 100–104 years at the FINA World Masters Championships from 1986 to 2014 Chiara M. Unterweger1, Beat Knechtle1,2*, Pantelis T. Nikolaidis3, Thomas Rosemann1 and Christoph A. Rüst1 Abstract Participation and performance trends in age group athletes have been investigated for different sport disciplines, but not for master swimmers. The knowledge on this topic is still missing for a particular stroke such as backstroke. Changes in participation and performance of male and female age group backstroke swimmers (≥25 years) competing in 50, 100 and 200 m pool swimming at the FINA World Masters Championships held between 1986 and 2014 were investigated using mixed-effects regression analyses. The overall participation was n = 26,217 including n = 13,708 women and n = 12,509 men. In 50 m, female (age groups 85–89 years; p = 0.002) and male participation (age groups 55–59; p = 0.030 and 80–84 years; p = 0.002) increased, while female participation decreased in age groups 55–59 (p = 0.010) and 60–64 years (p = 0.050). In 100 and 200 m, participation increased in age groups 45–49, 50–54, 65–69, 70–74, 80–84 years. Swimmers in age groups 25–29 to 95–99 years improved performance over all distances. Women were slower than men in age groups 25–29 to 80–84 years, but not in age groups 85–89 to 95–99 years over all distances. In 50 m and 100 m, the sex difference decreased in age groups 40–44 (p = 0.007 and p = 0.005), 45–49 (p = 0.017 and p = 0.034), 50–54 (p = 0.002 and p = 0.040), to 55–59 years (p = 0.002 and p = 0.004). In 200 m, the sex difference decreased in age groups 40–44 (p = 0.044) and 90–94 (p = 0.011), but increased in age group 25–29 years (p = 0.006). In summary, in age group backstroke swimmers, (1) participation increased or remained unchanged (except women in age groups 55–59 and 60–64 years in 50 m), (2) swimming performance improved in all age groups from 25–29 to 95–99 years over all distances, (3) men were faster than women in age groups 25–29 to 80–84 years (except age groups 85–89 to 95–99 years) over time and all distances. Keywords: Age group, Swimming, Master athlete, Performance, Sex differences Background Master athletes are generally defined as athletes older than 35 years, training for and competing in organized forms of sport specifically designed for older athletes (www.world-masters-athletics.org/about-us). Due to the increasing life expectancy in the general Western *Correspondence: 2 Facharzt FMH für Allgemeinmedizin, Gesundheitszentrum St. Gallen, Vadianstrasse 26, 9001 St. Gallen, Switzerland Full list of author information is available at the end of the article population (Oeppen and Vaupel 2002; www.who.int/ mediacentre/news/releases/2014/world-health-statistics-2014/en/), the knowledge of changes in participation and performance of master athletes in different sport disciplines is of high interest for physicians, coaches and athletes. In recent years, there has been a considerable increase in participation of master athletes and in several age groups athletes also improved performance in different endurance sport disciplines such as marathon (Anthony et al. 2014; Jokl et al. 2004) and ultra-marathon running © 2016 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Unterweger et al. SpringerPlus (2016) 5:645 (Jampen et al. 2013; Rüst et al. 2013; Zingg et al. 2013) ultra-cycling (Shoak et al. 2013), long-distance triathlon such as Ironman triathlon (Lepers et al. 2013; Stiefel et al. 2013, 2014) and Triple and Deca Iron ultra-triathlon (Knechtle et al. 2012), long-distance inline-skating (Teutsch et al. 2013) and ultra-mountain biking (Haupt et al. 2013). Although large cross-sectional studies in swimming already investigated changes of age, performance (König et al. 2014) and sex differences (Wild et al. 2014) in World Championships, cross- sectional studies investigating participation and performance trends of master backstroke swimmers are missing. Despite the abovementioned general definition according to which master athletes were defined as those older than 35 years (Reaburn and Dascombe 2008), this definition might vary by sport disciplines. In swimming, the term ʽmaster athleteʼ defines swimmers of 25 years in age or older following the Fédération Internationale de Natation-FINA (www.fina.org/H2O/). In swimming, several studies investigated swimming performance in different age groups from 25 to 80 years (Bongard et al. 2007; Rüst et al. 2012; Senefeld et al. 2016; Vaso et al. 2013; Wolfrum et al. 2013) and 40–79 years (Akkari et al. 2015). Other authors concentrated on the agerelated performance decline, but focused primarily on freestyle (Bongard et al. 2007; Donato et al. 2003; Fairbrother 2007; Rubin et al. 2013; Tanaka and Seals 1997). In recent years, however, for other strokes such as butterfly (Senefeld et al. 2016; Zingg et al. 2014a, b), breaststroke (Koch-Ziegenbein et al. 2013; Senefeld et al. 2016; Wolfrum et al. 2013, 2014), individual medley (Buhl et al. 2013a, b; Vaso et al. 2013) and backstroke (Janoschka et al. 2014; Kollarz et al. 2013a, b; Senefeld et al. 2016) changes in the age of peak swimming performance were investigated. Although the age of peak swimming performance is important to plan an athletic career for elite swimmers, the knowledge of sex differences in swimming performance is also of high interest. Several authors showed that the sex difference in swimming performance decreased with increasing race distance for freestyle (Rüst et al. 2012; Tanaka and Seals 1997), individual medley (Buhl et al. 2013a), breaststroke (Wolfrum et al. 2013, 2014) and butterfly (Zingg et al. 2014a, b). Most of these studies investigated rather shorter time periods of 5–11 years (Rüst et al. 2012; Tanaka and Seals 1997; Wolfrum et al. 2013; Zingg et al. 2014a). A recent study, covering a time period of 26 years in swimming, reported that in all 5-year age groups of top ten master swimmers aged between 25 and 89 years men were faster than women for freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke, with the greatest sex difference being observed in butterfly (Senefeld et al. 2016). Page 2 of 12 The knowledge of participation and performance trends in swimming in different age groups for a particular stroke such as backstroke is still missing. It has been reported that even master backstroke swimmers aged 100 years and older can set world records in their age groups (www.washingtonp (...truncated)


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Chiara M. Unterweger, Beat Knechtle, Pantelis T. Nikolaidis, Thomas Rosemann, Christoph A. Rüst. Increased participation and improved performance in age group backstroke master swimmers from 25–29 to 100–104 years at the FINA World Masters Championships from 1986 to 2014, SpringerPlus, 2016, pp. 645, Volume 5, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1186/s40064-016-2209-2