BACKGROUND In terms of sporting activities, the relative age effect means the possible advantages of participation and performance of athletes who were born closer to the beginning of the year of selection corresponding to other athletes within the same age category. The aim of this study is to investigate the relative age effect on male and female athletes Olympic weightlifting athletes that participated in the European Weightlifting Championships from 2015 to 2019. Moreover, the study also aims to find out the birthdate quarter of elite athletes who ranked in the first three medalists in the championships. METHODS This study examines the relative age effect on male (N.=1931) and female (N.=1514) weightlifting athletes who participated in the European Weightlifting Championships from 2015 to 2019 held by the European Weightlifting Federation. A traditional approach to analyze the data and to study the relative age effects is to categorize all participants into four quarters: Q1 (January to March); Q2 (April to June); Q3(July to September) and Q4 (October to December). To analyze the distribution of the participants by quarter, the Chi-square test was used. The level of significance was set at P<0.05. RESULTS In male under 15 and youth age category, the rate of athletes born in the Q1 was observed to be higher than the rates of athletes born in the Q2, Q3 and Q4. In female groups, the rate of under 15 born in the Q2 was higher than the rate of the athletes born in the Q4 and the athletes born in the Q2 in junior age category was found to be higher than the rates of Q1, Q3 and Q4. It was also observed that the male athletes in under15 category that ranked in the first three medalists in weightlifting championships were born in the Q1, whereas the female athletes in junior category ranking in the first three medalists were born in the Q2. CONCLUSIONS From our study findings, it was found that, irrespective of body weight categories, the relative age effects exist in both male (except junior and senior categories) and female weightlifting athletes (except youth and senior categories)
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