Physical structure of winter sports athletes.

A review of the results concerning the body size, growth, maturation, shape, composition, and strength of ice hockey players, cross-country skiers, alpine skiers, ski jumpers and Nordic combined skiers is presented. The comparisons of the results in body height, weight, somatotypes, percent fat, LBM and hand grip from various authors are made. Also the differences between ice hockey players and skiers of all disciplines are shown. The review covers all the available results. It may be concluded that the elite athletes in each studied sport form a highly select group which has, from the biomechanical point of view, the best physical structure for their sport discipline.