177 General discussion 8 up to the point of classification. As a result, the athletic profiles describe the developmental trajectory of swimmers known to have achieved higher performance levels later in their careers (i.e. on track to reach the elite level) compared to their lower-performing peers who attained success at the national level but were not on track to reach the elite level. This provides valuable information about which characteristics at an earlier time-point may contribute towards achieving the elite level, including their corresponding levels and progression. Third, whenever possible, collected data were related to relevant reference values of elite swimmers and expressed as relative rather than absolute values. Season best times were related to the prevailing world record (WR) and scores on swimming tests were related to the average start time, turn time, clean swimming velocity and SI of male and female finalists at the European Championships in 2021 (Born et al., 2022). This approach accounts for the evolution of competitive swimming marked by the continuous improvements in world records, and allows for meaningful comparisons among swimmers specializing in different events or emerging from diverse cohorts. Moreover, it provides insights into aspiring youth swimmers’ position relative to the international senior standard on both swim performance as well as underlying components of the race. Collectively, with this strong foundation rooted in meaningful criteria for defining performance level groups, as well as evaluating swimmer’s capabilities in relation to the elite level, we are confident in our ability to draw the athletic profiles that relate to the successful progression towards achieving a performance level comparable to the world's top 50 swimmers.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw