165 Growing up and reaching for the top: A longitudinal study of talented swimmers 7 training compared to those with fewer hours. However, while we acknowledge that these benefits may be reflected in our results on the individual level, we expect that the impact on our overall findings will be limited given the subtle and minor variations observed between high- and lower-performing swimmers. Strengths and limitations The present study comprised a wide range of talented swimmers as we included participants from the Dutch Junior National Championships, rather than solely inviting swimmers from national talent development program, who are typically the top performers of their age group. We followed this relatively large and heterogenous group of swimmers over time (varying from 6 to 18 months) and monitored their development on swim performance and multiple underlying performance characteristics. Using this multidimensional and longitudinal design, which is scarce in literature, we acquired insights into swimmers’ developmental patterns (skill levels and progression rates) during the pubertal years. By comparing the scores of maximal swimming velocity and SI to the reference values of international senior elite swimmers, we not only enabled comparisons between swimmers specializing in different events but also gained insights into a swimmer’s position relative to the standard set by these top performers. Furthermore, we created performance level groups based on a swimmer’s performance level at late junior age relative to the performances of international senior elite swimmers of the same age in the past. While this approach doesn’t make direct predictions about senior performances, our classification of performance level groups does take future achievements into account. As a result, our findings may provide insight into swimmer’s potential for later success, which offers scientific and practical value for talent development in swimming. However, when interpreting the results, it is important to acknowledge that our findings pertain to pubertal swimmers (males aged 13-15; females aged 12-14) who qualified for the Dutch National Junior Championships. Considering that our measurements were conducted during this particular event, it is important to recognize that swimmers who did not meet the qualification criteria were unable to participate in the measurements. Furthermore, reflected by the lower mean ages of PHV (13.1 years for males; 11.6 years for females) compared to the average ages of 14 in males and 12 in females (Malina et al., 2004a), we observed an overrepresentation of early-maturing swimmers throughout the sample. In light of the physical advantages associated with early maturation, it is possible that the swimmers in our study were more likely to qualify for the Dutch National Junior Championships compared to late-maturing swimmers. This potentially introduces a survivorship bias in our results (Baker et al., 2022). Moreover, we examined swimmers who are currently in the midst of their development, analyzing a limited set of underlying performance characteristics. Notably, we did not
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