Peak Age For T&F
- Sep 30, 2014
- 4 min read
HEY THERE! Check out this projectile motion curve.
It's kind of representative for the life of an athlete if you think about it.
We all start out with little to no skill (see: first dot) and increase as we train. We train harder and harder and get better and better until we hit some crazy peak performance and have the best athletic year ever (see: highest black dot). Then, what gives? We get older. Lose some speed, some strength, maybe get injured, but no matter what we start to lose some of our abilities (see: falling dots).
As an athlete myself, my interest is finding out when I can expect to peak. I need to know the future. I love seeing constant improvements, an inch a season, I say! But one day I know this won't be the case. What better way to research this topic by nerding out hard on some Track & Field World Records!?
TRACK & FIELD WORLD RECORDS BY AGE AND EVENT
See this graph? I made this graph. Blue for men, orange for women.
The data represents an average peak age for woman of 25.76 years, a year older than the male average of 24.71 years. Keep in mind this info is most likely total garbage for a number of reasons (doping, event specificity, weather conditions, birthday of athletes, crowd energy, etc.) but I think it's a decent place to start.
Sprinters- Guys will typically hit top speeds during their low twenties, while women have a few more years, peaking around age 28. Hurdles add a few years to the male peak age, raising it to about 26, while lowering the female peak age by about 3 years.
Distance- Expect your best times before you hit legal drinking age or shortly thereafter..unless you’re a female steeple chaser.
Jumps- Field events show much similar ages for men and women, with each event typically showing a similar peak age for both genders. That being said, Jumpers can look forward to peaking between 22 and 29 for the most part. Female high jumpers see the earliest age peak of the four events and male triple jumpers peak the latest.
Throws- Ages range from 23 up to 31 on the chart, with men showing higher ages for peak performance than women aside from the shot put. Hammer throw sees the latest peak age for the throwing events.
Mid-Distance- This one is a bit of a wild card. No real patterns here- except that girls peak much later, around 28, (aside from the 1,500) and boys peak typically before they turn 24.
Let's be real: If you are trying to predict the age that you will reach your peak, no one can tell you. Peak age has much more to do with your ability and training than your gender and event. Elite athletes are way different than recreational ones. Plus you have to factor in things like training intensity, location, genetics, nutrition, motivation, and like.. health and stuff. What color are your eyes? It probably matters. I decided to do a little extra digging into female high jumpers, because that's really the only thing I care about. Here's some stuff!
Jumper: Blanka Vlasic Personal Record: 2.08m
Here is Blanka Vlasic’s career progression in the High Jump. Blanka hit her top performance when she was just about 26 years old, nearly 4 years older than the world record holder. She has definitely 'peaked', as you can see by the dip in her performance, but shes still killing it. Could have been due to her injury, and she may make a comeback! If not- this is a good example. Looks similar to the curve up top.
Jumper: Anna Chicherova Personal Record: 2.07m
Here is a graph of Chicherova’s career progression in the High Jump – She hit her peak performance on her 29th birthday. Again we can see a clear peak here and a dip in performance, but same as Blanka she is still competing and doing a dang good job as you can see by her most recent PR around 2 meters. What's interesting with Anna is the multiple peak progression. This tends to happen; you do great, you start sucking, and you come back even stronger to redeem yourself. But this can't happen forever, and it's likely Anna has reached her final career peak.
Jumper: Ruth Beitia
Personal Record: 2.02m
Then there is the anomaly that is Spain's Ruth Beitia. She hit her PR mark of 2.02 when she was 28, but hasn't dipped much since. I can't seem to find a clear peak for this graph which leads me to believe she may have a new PR in her future. She's still competing now, at age 36, and continuing to regularly clear over 2 meters. It's pretty amazing, and I seriously love it. Looking forward to following her career more.
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I'll admit- I'm currently keeping up my own career graph. So far, so good!
Do you think you have peaked yet?
-vivalakelc
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