Morganti Gabriele, Kelly Adam Leigh, Vitarelli Matteo, Strassoldo di Villanova Francesca, Ruscello Bruno, Campoli Francesca, Padua Elvira
Department of Human Sciences and Promotion of the Quality of Life, San Raffaele Roma Open University, 00166 Rome, Italy.
Research for Athlete and Youth Sport Development (RAYSD) Lab, Centre for Life and Sport Sciences (CLaSS), Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences, Birmingham City University, Birmingham B15 3TN, UK.
Sports (Basel). 2024 Nov 14;12(11):309. doi: 10.3390/sports12110309.
Italian swimming emphasizes the early specialization of selected children from approximately 6 to 7 years old. Such an approach often leads to selection biases (i.e., birth advantages), which may undermine swimmers' development and progression through the talent pathway. Accordingly, this study aimed to: (a) explore the presence of birth advantages at the annual Italian national age-group competition by observing the birth quarter (BQ) and place of early development (PED) distribution of 514 U15 swimmers; and (b) investigate how birth advantages affect swimmers' ability to maintain their national status by comparing the BQ and PED distributions of 555 U17 national-level swimmers to the expected values (i.e., U15 distribution). Chi-square statistics for the U15 revealed an overrepresentation of BQ1s and swimmers developing in north and central Italy (-values < 0.0001). In contrast, the U17's BQ ( < 0.001) and PED ( = 0.01) distributions appeared skewed compared to the U15, favoring swimmers born in BQ3 and BQ4, and swimmers developing in north Italy (odds ratios: 1.69, 1.76, 1.39 respectively). The findings highlighted that cultural-contextual features of the environment shape Italian youth swimmers' development and their progression through the current talent pathway.
意大利的游泳项目注重对大约6至7岁的特定儿童进行早期专项培养。这种方式往往会导致选拔偏差（即出生优势），这可能会阻碍游泳运动员在人才培养路径中的发展和进步。因此，本研究旨在：(a) 通过观察514名15岁以下游泳运动员的出生季度（BQ）和早期成长地（PED）分布，探究意大利年度全国年龄组比赛中出生优势的存在情况；(b) 通过比较555名17岁国家级游泳运动员的BQ和PED分布与预期值（即15岁以下运动员的分布），研究出生优势如何影响游泳运动员保持其国家级地位的能力。15岁以下运动员的卡方统计显示，BQ1以及在意大利北部和中部成长的运动员人数过多（p值<0.0001）。相比之下，与15岁以下运动员相比，17岁运动员的BQ（p<0.001）和PED（p = 0.01）分布似乎存在偏差，有利于出生在BQ3和BQ4的运动员以及在意大利北部成长的运动员（优势比分别为：1.69、1.76、1.39）。研究结果突出表明，环境的文化背景特征塑造了意大利青少年游泳运动员的发展以及他们在当前人才培养路径中的进步。
