Abstract

We analyse the qualifying times introduced by World Aquatics for the masters' World Championships. Our approach is based on the theory we proposed for the fair scoring of athletic performances, where we claimed that the scoring should be directly linked to the energetic cost of the effort. The application of that approach led to the realisation that the evolution of performances with age follows a well-defined, ``universal'', curve, practically rectilinear in the ``young'' and ``old'' branches. We show in this paper that the same approach, based on energetic cost and the universal curve, can be applied to swimming. Age adjustment factors can be derived simply within this framework, and they compare favourably with the empirical ones. We analyse the World Aquatics qualifying times, showing an overall consistency but also identifying a few discrepancies. A new set of qualifying times, computed with our methods, is also proposed as a proof-of-concept.

Keywords: Swimming, energetic cost, master athletes, evolution of performances

How to Cite:

Grammaticos, B., (2024) “A model-based analysis of master swimmers performances”, Maths and Sports 6(1). doi: https://doi.org//ms.1360