Are you too old to be an Olympian? Spoiler alert: Probably

Are you too old to be an Olympian?

If you are over 18 years old and do not already compete at a high level, you are unlikely to compete in the Olympics.

The oldest Olympian ever was 72, but that was in 1920 – Oscar Swahn was a Swedish shooter who competed in three Olympic Games and won three gold medals.

At the other end of the scale is 14-year-old Australian Chloe Covell, who has booked her ticket to Paris in skateboarding. She is a silver medalist at the World Championships, a gold medalist at the X-Games and is ranked fourth in the world.

The physical, technical and tactical demands of a sport have a major influence on the age at which athletes reach their optimal performance.

In endurance sports such as triathlon and long-distance running, athletes typically reach their peak in their early to mid-30s.

In contrast, gymnasts and divers typically reach their peak performance earlier: women at around 16 years of age and men in their early to mid-20s.

This can affect the age at which talent is recognized.

Talent recognition and early specialization

Typically, athletes have been practicing their sport for many years before participating in the Olympic Games.

While they may have put in many hours of training, those hours may not be exclusively in their chosen sport, which is probably not a bad thing.

Why? Because specializing in one sport from a young age can lead to burnout and the athlete giving up.

It makes sense for athletes to practice more than one sport for the sake of variety. For every Rafael Nadal – who reportedly trained like a madman at the age of seven – there are several athletes who gave up their sport and never made it to the highest level.

Studies on the development history of Olympic and world champion athletes show that they often try out several sports before specializing.

They were often not typically successful as young athletes and invested a similar amount of time in sport-specific training as athletes who had specialized earlier.

Participating in multiple sports during childhood promotes an athlete’s adaptability because the different nature of the sports allows children to develop different physical, technical and tactical skills.

What about talent transfer?

Another way to identify talent is the process of talent transfer.

Talent transfer occurs when an athlete gives up one sport (for example due to injury, because he or she has not reached a certain level or because he or she has ended his or her sporting career) and then turns to another sport that probably has similar characteristics.

Often the skills acquired in the first sport can be transferred to the second.

Australia has a long tradition of transferring talent to younger athletes, for example in the successful diving program of the NSW Institute of Sport and the aerial skiing program of the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia. In both cases, gymnastics is typically the “donor sport”.

Even older top athletes were put on the road to success through talent transfer.

Notable examples include Jana Pittman, a former multiple world champion in the 400-meter hurdles who switched to bobsleigh after retiring from athletics and within two years competed in the 2014 Winter Olympics.

For a successful talent transfer, you not only need the right athlete, but – what is important – also the right coaching talent.

This means that they are specialized and experienced trainers who can recognize the future performance potential of an athlete and capitalize on the athlete’s previous training history and abilities.

Athletes can be approached directly by a sports coach or administrator to facilitate a transfer. Alternatively, an athlete who is leaving one sport may be encouraged to try another, or may attend “taster days” or “talent discovery days” that introduce them to a sport.

And the Paralympics?

Talent identification in Paralympians is likely to be different. Some athletes acquire a disability while others have a congenital disability.

For some Paralympians, the rise to world-class level can happen very quickly.

In 2017, Australian Lauren Parker had a serious training accident while preparing for an Ironman competition, which left her paralyzed.

After just three months of training, Parker was able to transfer her able-bodied skills and experience to para-triathlon, winning a bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. In 2022, she won gold at the World Championships and now competes in para-cycling.

Talent identification programs are run regularly in Australia, such as Paralympics Australia’s Talent Identification Days and the Queensland Government’s YouFor2032 program, which aim to discover Paralympic talent.

What do talent identification and development programs achieve?

Specialized talent identification programs typically focus on physiological tests such as sprinting, jumping and endurance. In some cases, performance in games or competitions is also evaluated.

Each sport has a different process for identifying talent. And the age at which talent is identified also varies.

In team sports, young athletes are often selected for national teams. This then leads to regional and national representation.

In individual sports, athletes are often identified by their results, such as time or distance. The best athletes then represent the district and may be able to compete in state and national competitions.

Physical characteristics are often used to identify athletes, but in young athletes this leads to a phenomenon known as the ‘relative age effect’: children born at or close to a critical age cutoff may have an athletic advantage.

Research has shown that coaches make decisions about talented athletes based on their implicit knowledge or instinct.

However, coaches do not always agree about an athlete’s potential.

Outstanding athletes are given the opportunity for further training and coaching.

A successful environment for talented athletes is one in which they are nurtured, which includes appropriate coaching appropriate to their age and pace of development. A focus on health and wellbeing (not just sporting activities) and the long-term development of the athlete is also important.

While age plays an important role for athletes and coaches with Olympic dreams, it should not be the be-all and end-all for lower-level competitors.

Organizations sometimes need to “think outside the box” and take the risk of using different identification strategies and looking not at the age of a potential athlete, but at his “X-factor” and attitude.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.