THE PHYSIQUE OF NATIONAL OLYMPIC TEAMS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR TALENT SELECTION
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Kinanthropology |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://conference.fsps.muni.cz/media/3065171/proceedings-of-the-11th-conference-on-kinanthropology.pdf |
| Keywords | Olympic athletes; physique; race; ethnicity; height; BMI |
| Description | In this study, inspired by the classical work of Hirata (1966), we compared body dimensions (height, weight, body mass index/BMI) of national male Olympic teams at the Summer Olympic Games 2000-2016. The results show that the national averages of height and BMI from the same regions are mutually similar. The mean height of Olympic teams is highly correlated with the mean height of young men in their native countries, and mean BMI values from certain regions show consistent tendencies. These data indicate that average physical characteristics of national Olympic teams reflect the body type prevalent in their native populations, which may have very important practical implications for talent selection strategies. A specific case is that of nations of the former Yugoslavia that have the tallest averages of height among all the Olympic teams and whose physical characteristics have been investigated within a separate anthropometric project. |
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