Researchers in the field of athlete development have explored various athlete profiles to determine pathways that reliably define success at high levels in adulthood and have implications for optimal development. While the role of diverse sport experiences during childhood has received extensive attention, questions regarding what types of sport diversity, particularly diverse activities within an athlete’s primary sport, have not. There is reason to evaluate how within-sport diversity can act as a predictor of successful performance in adulthood, based on research with swimmers (Staub et al., 2020). The timing and amount of sport activities and onset of sport specialization has been proposed to impact when an athlete achieves success, highlighted by different profiles of successful younger versus older athletes (Güllich et al., 2021). Athlete development pathways also differ between male and female athletes, demonstrating the importance in considering sex when forming predictions and recommendations related to success in elite sport (Curran et al., 2019). This thesis explores within-sport diversity in competition and training among high-level swimmers in relation to developing sport-specific expertise. The first study involved analysis of diversity in childhood and adolescence competition events and its relationship to performance in a single event at later ages. The top 500 male and female athletes, across four different events, were studied. There were generally positive correlations between competition event diversity during childhood and performance at ages 16 and 18 yr, with lower correlations at age 21 yr. To extend beyond competition diversity, a second study was conducted. We used surveys to ask about practice and other-sport diversity from male and female Canadian Varsity, National, and Junior-National swimmers (N = 137). Athletes showed high within-sport diversity in training during childhood and adolescence, but low between-sport diversity. There were no differences based on skill level (National vs Varsity) or sex. However, the junior swimmers showed more training volume, earlier specialization and higher stroke diversity compared to the seniors. These data provide insight into the competition and training activities of high-level Canadian swimmers across their development. There was evidence that high within-sport diversity during childhood, is related to success, especially at the junior level.
Porter Madeleine Trevisan (Thu,) studied this question.