Performance trajectory related to age, sport classification, and sex in elite paralympic va’a canoe athletes

Va’a Paracanoe Sprint (PCS) is a relatively recent Paralympic discipline, characterized by specific technical and functional demands and a still-developing competitive structure. Despite its growing international relevance, evidence describing performance trajectories in this modality remains limited. This study examined performance trajectories according to age, sport class, and sex in elite Va’a PCS athletes using a retrospective cohort design. Eleven years (2015–2025) of international competition data were analyzed, including race times, age, sex, sport class, and impairment. Overall, race times demonstrated negative correlations with year (r = −0.60 to −0.02), indicating a general pattern of performance improvement, although statistically significant associations were observed only in VL1-M, VL3-M, and VL3-F (r = −0.60 to −0.48; p ≤ 0.05). Performance differences between sport classes remained stable over time, with larger gaps between VL1-M and VL2-M (15.7% to 26.1%) than between VL2-M and VL3-M (1.5% to 11.5%). The mean age of athletes ranged from 31.8 to 38.3 years, exceeding values typically reported in Olympic canoe sprint. Peak performance was achieved after approximately 2.0 to 3.5 years of participation in international finals and occurred at similar ages between men and women within each sport class ( p > 0.05). These findings indicate progressive performance improvement, a relatively late peak age, and stable class-dependent differences, reflecting the ongoing maturation of Va’a PCS.