Features of considering age and duration of maintaining of higher sports skills in male-swimmers

The article is devoted to identifying a favorable age for the manifestation and preservation of maximum individual capabilities at the level of the highest achievements of male swimmers at the current stage of development of competitive swimming. In scientific and methodological literature published before 2000, the opinion prevailed that competitive swimming is a sport for young people, where high achievements of male swimmers are associated with the age limit from 17 to 22 years. These data were consistent with world practice in the 1960s–1980s. Over the past 20 years, the highest achievements of male swimmers have been associated with the age group of 20–25 years, and the age of the duration of maintaining sports achievements has continued to increase. Therefore, modern sports practice requires continuous attention and analysis of these age benchmarks for timely changes in the duration and content of training and demonstration of the highest level of achievements by athletes. The authors analyzed the age of the winners who became prize-winners of the Olympic Games held in the period from 2004 to 2024 and determined that the favorable age for demonstrating the highest achievements in sports swimming among men is the age of 21–25 years, since the first high sports results are 19 years. Despite certain age limits for the highest achievements in men's swimming, the desire of athletes to maintain sports skills for a long time continues to increase. It should be noted that at the next XXXIV Games of the Olympiad, which will be held in Los Angeles, a distance of 50 meters for each swimming style has already been added to the program, which may significantly affect the age of swimmers when achieving the highest results and the duration of their performances.