TY - GEN
T1 - Convergence and Divergence of Performances Across the Athletic Events for Men and Women
T2 - 10th International Symposium on Computer Science in Sport (ISCSS 2015)
AU - Heazlewood, Ian
AU - Walsh, Joseph
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - There is a perception that performances in athletic events, such as the sprints, throws distance and hurdles events are converging for the top athletes in each event where access to quality training methods and performances at international competitions are readily available for international ranked athletes. Some researchers cite biological reasons that may explain the suggested convergent tends in athletics. The research hypothesis and aim was to evaluate if performance convergence was occurring using the method of regression analysis of the mean of standard deviations, an index of performance dispersion or divergence, for the top 20 male and female athletes across the majority of athletic events from years 1960 to 2012. The results indicated that most male events have reached stasis, neither converging nor diverging whereas female events are currently undergoing performance convergence. Factors such as access to high performance coaches, sports scientist, relevant sports nutritionists and quality medical support are producing the level playing field that is now so level that minimal performance diversity exists between the top 20 male athletes across many events. The reverse situation applies to female athletes who are still displaying performance convergence and who are progressing towards a level playing field.
AB - There is a perception that performances in athletic events, such as the sprints, throws distance and hurdles events are converging for the top athletes in each event where access to quality training methods and performances at international competitions are readily available for international ranked athletes. Some researchers cite biological reasons that may explain the suggested convergent tends in athletics. The research hypothesis and aim was to evaluate if performance convergence was occurring using the method of regression analysis of the mean of standard deviations, an index of performance dispersion or divergence, for the top 20 male and female athletes across the majority of athletic events from years 1960 to 2012. The results indicated that most male events have reached stasis, neither converging nor diverging whereas female events are currently undergoing performance convergence. Factors such as access to high performance coaches, sports scientist, relevant sports nutritionists and quality medical support are producing the level playing field that is now so level that minimal performance diversity exists between the top 20 male athletes across many events. The reverse situation applies to female athletes who are still displaying performance convergence and who are progressing towards a level playing field.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84945979894&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://gradients.lboro.ac.uk/iacss2015/
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-24560-7_18
DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-24560-7_18
M3 - Conference Paper published in Proceedings
SN - 978-3-319-24558-4
T3 - Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
SP - 145
EP - 151
BT - Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Computer Science in Sport (ISCSS)
A2 - Chung, Paul
A2 - Soltoggio, Andrea
A2 - Dawson, Christian W
A2 - Meng, Qinggang
A2 - Pain, Matthew
PB - Springer
CY - Unknown
Y2 - 9 September 2015 through 11 September 2015
ER -