Table 1.
Performance progression (M ± SD) of all-time top 20 swimmers in all 17 events for Men and Women.
Fig 1.
Height of All-time men and women top lists in 5 styles and 17 events. a = significantly taller than BF and MD; b = significantly taller than MD; c = significantly taller than 200m BF; d = significantly shorter than FS, BK and BF.
* = significantly taller than their recent counterparts.
Fig 2.
Weight of All-time men and women top lists in 5 styles and 17 events. a = significantly lower than FS and BT; b = significantly higher than 200m BT; c = significantly lower than FS, BK, BT and BF.
* = significantly higher than their former counterparts.
Fig 3.
Comparable PPA of All-time for men and women top lists in 5 styles and 17 events. a = significantly higher than men’s FS, BK and BF; b = significantly higher than women’s MD; c = significantly higher than men’s 200m FS; d = significantly higher than men’s 200m BT; e = significantly higher than women’s 200m, 400m 800m and 1500m FS.
# = significantly higher than their women counterparts. * = significantly higher than their recent counterparts.
Fig 4.
The plots for the 95% confidence bands used to estimate the models using data from 18 swimmers.
Two remaining test patterns plotted with dashed lines for further evaluation of the obtained models. For example, future performances for a 16-year-old male swimmer in the 100 m freestyle with a height of 191 cm and a best performance of 53.21 s at age 15 are estimated to be 51.72, 49.47, 49.40, 49.40, 48.88, 48.49, and 48.16 s at ages 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22, respectively. Rt −1 is the best personal record one year ago, Rt −2 is the best personal record two years ago, Rt.m is the average (mean) of the records of the all-time top lists at a given age (Table 1). The factors for each discipline were set to a statistical significance of P < 0.05. The R software dynamic panel data P-values are indicated in each case.