Artistic gymnastics is a highly demanding sport that requires a high level of gymnast's physical efficiency. However, as in other sports, one of the limiting factors in achieving the top-level results is also the athlete's body height and body weight, while for planning sport form very important information is the age in which it can be expected the athlete's best results. The first aim of this research was to determine the differences in height, weight and age of the top-level male gymnasts in relation to their classification at the World Championships in year 2007. The second aim was to determine whether there has been a change in height, weight and age of the elite gymnasts at the World Championships in year 2011, after one Olympic period. The sample for this research consist of the best 70 (30 on the vault) male gymnasts who classified in World Championships 2007 and World Championships 2011. These were the only qualifying events for the Olympic Games in year 2008 and 2012. The study included the total of 900 rankings. Variables included in this analysis were body height, body weight, age and rank in both competitions in all around and each of the six artistic gymnastics apparatus individually. In order to calculate the differences between the height, weight and age models for each discipline ANOVA was used, and to calculate the differences between the individual gymnastics disciplines T-test for independent sample was used. In rings and vault the best positioned are those gymnasts whose height and weight is less than the best gymnasts on parallel bars and horizontal bar. In rings the best positioned gymnasts are also the oldest, while the best positioned gymnasts in all around are the youngest. The results of ANOVA showed statistically significant differences between the groups of gymnasts in one discipline, as well as between two different disciplines. Comparing the arithmetic mean between the first seventy (thirty on vault) gymnasts in each gymnastics discipline on the World Championships 2007th and World Championships 2011th year it can be concluded that there are no statistically significant difference between gymnasts in height, weight and age in any discipline.
© Copyright 2013 Croatian Sports Medicine Journal. Croatian Olympic Committee. All rights reserved.