Body-Composition-and-Somatotype-of-Child-and-Adolescent-Athletes-From-the-Sports-Swimming-School-Campus-Maldonado-Uruguay

Introduction: Sports performance is multifactorial, including body composition and somatotype.These factors can potentially influence the development of an athlete's biological potential and, more specifically, interfere with the technical execution of the sport.Purpose: Determine the body composition and somatotype of swimmers from the Maldonado Sports School, Uruguay. Materials and Methods:The sample size (n) consisted of 38 individuals aged between 10 and 18 years old.Body composition was determined using four-component method.Somatotype was determined by assessing the three components of somatotype separately (endomorphy, mesomorphy, ectomorphy).All parameters were determined and classified by sex. Results:The average values for fat tissue, bone tissue, muscle tissue, and residual weight for female athletes were 16.48, 17.20, 45.43, and 20.90, respectively.For male athletes, the average values were 9.88, 19.02, 50.22, and 20.90, respectively.The somatotype components for female athletes were 3.248 (endomorphy), 4.787 (mesomorphy), and 2.565 (ectomorphy), while for male athletes, they were 1.773 (endomorphy), 4.533 (mesomorphy), and 3.373 (ectomorphy).Discussion and Conclusion: It was found that female athletes exhibited a predominance of adipose tissue, while male athletes showed a higher proportion of bone and muscle tissue.Regarding somatotype, there was a trend towards centrality with a predominance of the mesomorphic component for both sexes (female = mesoendomorphic, male = mesoectomorphic).A low endomorphic component and somatotype modifications apparently dependent on the time spent as an athlete were observed (both sexes).