Abstract

Research aimed at analyzing age and somatic indexes of rowers who took part in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in comparison with their sports results. These main methods were used in research: literature review, analysis of the results of the Olympic Games, and mathematical statistics. With reference to the results and information about athletes published on the official web site of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Garnes (http://en.beijing2008.cn/), data on age, height (m), body mass (kg), body mass index (BMI) of 156 women and 288 men who participated in finals A and B of rowing events in the Beijing Olympic Games has been analyzed. Moreover, the analogue data of 63 female kayak rowers, 90 male kayak rowers and 54 male canoeists who took part in the kayak and canoe rowing finals has been presented in the analysis. The arithmetic mean and standard deviation (S) of rowers’ age, height, body mass, and BMI have been calculated. To estimate the reliability of mean differences between separate groups of indexes, Student (t) criterion designed for independent samples has been applied. We determined that the average age of female rowers who participated in finals A and B in the Olympic Garnes was 27.5 ± 4.13 years. The youngest female rower was 19 years old, and the oldest one was at the age of 40. Female rowers who won medals in the Games were older in comparison with the sportswomen who took places 4-12. What is more, they were higher (p < 0,05), heavier (p < 0.05) and had higher body mass index if to compare it with the sportswomen who took places 4-12. In men’s finals A and B, the age of sportsmen was between 19 and 43 years, which makes the average of 27.2 ± 4.0 years. The height of rowers who took places 1-3, 4-6 and 7-12 did not differentiate and comprised 1.91 m; meanwhile, the body mass and body mass index of medal winners were higher than of those who took places 4-12. Female rowers of the age of 17-44 years participated in the Beijing Olympic Games kayak rowing final. Sportswomen who took places from 1 to 3 were older and had lower body mass and body mass index than those who took places 4-9. The Beijing Olympic Games men’s kayak rowing event medallists were younger than sportsmen who took places 4-6, and older than those who took places 7-9. Height, body mass and body mass index of finalists did not differentiate significantly. The collected data on rowers` age and somatic indexes allows making up model characteristics and may be used to sample the rowers. Verf.-Referat