THE AGING Olympian debate
Four-time Olympic Champion
Kathrin Boron from Germany
competed at her fifth Olympic
Games in Beijing where she won
her fifth Olympic medal (bronze
in the women’s quadruple sculls)
at the age of 39.
22
it is generally thought that olympic
rowers, as part of a strength and
endurance sport, peak in their late
twenties with the average age of the
olympians at around 27 years old. there
is also the general belief that older
athletes cannot maintain the speed of
their younger counterparts. if this is true,
why does it appear that there are more
rowers staying in the sport for longer
and remaining competitive well past
their assumed peak years?
was nearly 39 years old before he won his first
Olympic medal.
Looking at the last 20 years of Olympic Games,
the number of older rowers (determined here
as 35 years of age and older) has increased
steadily (see Fig. 1 on page 23). This increase
is despite there being more Olympic rowers
at the 1988 Games (a total of 622) before the
quota system began in 1996, capping the
number of rowers at 550.
training and injury-recovery techniques, as
well as rules changes that allow athletes to
make money and still retain their Olympic
eligibility. Twenty-one members of the U.S.
team are 40 or older.”
At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Regatta, two
high-profile athletes were in their 43rd year.
James Tomkins was racing in the Australian
men’s eight. In the same boat was Sam Conrad,
Tomkins’ junior by 18 years. For Tomkins,
making it into the eight meant securing his
seat over much younger team members.
Jueri Jaanson of Estonia, also nearly 43 years
old at Beijing, was partnered with 28–
year-old Tonu Endrekson in the men’s double and
together they took silver. Jaanson, who has
been rowing at the top level since his youth,
At the Games in 1988 there were just six
older rowers. A steady increase over the next
20 years of older athletes has brought this
number to 28 in 2008. In percentage terms,
this takes the number of older athletes from
less than 1 per cent (1988) up to 5 per cent in
2008 (see Fig. 2 on page 23).
There have been a number of studies that have
looked into the impact of aging on athlete
competitiveness, but these studies are often
incomplete as athletes frequently retire from
top level competition for reasons other than
a loss of competitive edge due to aging.
For rowers these external reasons
include the desire to begin a career,
time constraints due to a full-time
job, family commitments and
many more. >>
USA Today ( 8 August 2008 issue) wrote
that the average age of America’s Olympic
athletes had increased to 27, up from 23 a
generation ago. The article went on to say,
“Experts attribute the trend to advances in
