MacDonald Dany J, King Jared, Côté Jean, Abernethy Bruce
School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
J Sci Med Sport. 2009 Jan;12(1):234-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jsams.2007.05.015. Epub 2007 Sep 21.
This study examined the extent to which an athlete's place of birth can influence the likelihood of playing professional sport. Information regarding the birthplace of all American female athletes in the Ladies Professional Golf Association and Women's United Soccer Association was gathered from official league websites. Monte Carlo simulations were used to determine if the birthplace of these professional athletes differed in any systematic way from official census population distributions. Odds-ratios were determined for cities within specific population ranges to ascertain if the likelihood of playing professional sport was influenced in any systematic way by city size. The analyses revealed that female professional soccer players born in cities of less than 1,000,000 were over-represented, as were female professional golfers born in cities of less than 250,000. Results are consistent with those of male professional athletes in suggesting that areas of lower population provide conditions more conducive to the development of expertise than do larger city environments.
本研究考察了运动员的出生地在多大程度上会影响其从事职业运动的可能性。从官方联赛网站收集了女子职业高尔夫协会和女子联合足球协会中所有美国女运动员的出生地信息。使用蒙特卡洛模拟来确定这些职业运动员的出生地与官方人口普查人口分布是否存在任何系统性差异。确定了特定人口范围内城市的优势比，以确定城市规模是否以任何系统性方式影响从事职业运动的可能性。分析表明，出生在人口不足100万城市的女子职业足球运动员人数过多，出生在人口不足25万城市的女子职业高尔夫球手人数也过多。结果与男性职业运动员的结果一致，表明人口较少的地区比大城市环境更有利于专业技能的发展。
