Fig 1.
Individual performance trajectories in males (A) high jump and (B) long jump athletes. The individual trajectories are reported for each athlete with color varying according to personal best performance, from blue (lowest level athletes) to red (highest level athlete).
Fig 2.
Age reaching personal best performance.
The age of reaching personal best performance (mean±SD) is reported for each subgroup of athlete. The sample was sub-grouped on the base of the percentiles of the personal best performance (reported in the x axis). Overall, top-level athletes reached their personal best performance later than the rest of the sample in all disciplines and genders: (A) men high jump; (B) men long jump; (C) women high jump; (D) women long jump. Post hoc analysis is showed as: *** p<0.0001.
Fig 3.
Annual rate of change in performance.
For each age from 14 to 18 years, the annual rates of change in performance (mean±SD) are reported for top-level athletes and the rest of the sample. Overall, top-level athletes showed greater annual rate of change in performance than the rest of the sample in all disciplines and genders: (A) men high jump; (B) men long jump; (C) women high jump; (D) women long jump. Post hoc analysis are reported as *p<0.05; **p<0.01; **p<0.001.
Table 1.
Percentages of top-level adult athletes that were considered top-level when they were young.
Table 2.
Percentages of top-level young that became top-level in the adulthood.
Fig 4.
Goodness personal best prediction.
In the Fig 4 are reported the R2 coefficients, as indices of prediction goodness, resulted from the multiple regression analysis conducted from 13 to 18 years old. When both annual best performance and annual rate of change were included in the regression model as independent factors (filled circles) the goodness of prediction was consistently greater than using only annual best performance as independent factor (empty circles). The annual rate of change from 12 to 13 years are not reported because the samples were too small to perform the analysis. The data are reported for men high-jump (A), men long-jump (C), women high-jump (C) and women long-jump (D) groups.