38 Chapter 3 Abstract Objective The main goal of the present study was to investigate the interim performance progression (IPP) of talented swimmers. Part of this group ultimately made it to the top (referred to as elite swimmers) whereas others did not make it to the top (referred to as high-competitive swimmers). Rather than investigating performance progression based solely on season best performances, we included the first swim performance of the season in the metrics of IPP. Knowledge about the IPP of talented swimmers from and towards their season best performances relative to the first swim performance of the season will enhance our understanding of changes in season best performances during the talent trajectory and provide valuable insights for talent development and selection processes in competitive swimming. Methods 15,944 swim performances (first swim performances of the season and season best performances) between 1993-2019 of 3,199 talented swimmers (of whom 556 reached elite level and 2,643 reached high-competitive level) were collected from Swimrankings and related to the prevailing world record of the corresponding sex. The pattern of IPP was represented by two phases: phase A and phase B. Phase A reflected the performance progression between the previous season best performance and the first swim performance of the current season (PPA) and phase B reflected the performance progression between the first swim performance of the current season and the season best performance of the current season (PPB). Depending on the normality check, we used independent sample t-tests or Mann Whitney tests to establish significant differences in PPA and PPB between elite and high competitive swimmers per age category per sex (p <0.05). Results Without denying individual differences, male elite swimmers improved more during phase B from age 15 till 24 compared to high-competitive swimmers (20.5% vs. 13.1% respectively, p <0.05). Female elite swimmers improved more during phase B from age 13 till 23 compared to high-competitive swimmers (21.1% vs. 14.6% respectively, p <0.05). Except for age 14 in males, there were no significant differences between performance groups in PPA.
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