Comments on: Athletes’ Inevitable Decline with Age https://www.isegoria.net/2011/06/athletes-inevitable-decline-with-age/ From the ancient Greek for equality in freedom of speech; an eclectic mix of thoughts, large and small Sat, 25 Jul 2026 18:24:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: Isegoria https://www.isegoria.net/2011/06/athletes-inevitable-decline-with-age/comment-page-1/#comment-274456 Isegoria Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:25:50 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=25511#comment-274456 If young athletes are getting more high-quality training at a younger age — which sounds perfectly plausible to me — then that would imply shorter careers with a steeper drop-off, since skill-levels wouldn’t still be climbing significantly as physical abilities began to fall.

]]> By: Doctor Pat https://www.isegoria.net/2011/06/athletes-inevitable-decline-with-age/comment-page-1/#comment-274257 Doctor Pat Fri, 01 Jul 2011 11:48:10 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=25511#comment-274257 The story I heard was the other way around. With improved coaching and training methods, it no longer takes a couple of decades to learn all the skills and build all the muscle, so sports stars are becoming younger and younger.

There is also the fact of increased, consistent, competition. In a sport with a smaller following, or no professional basis, the champ may well be able to hold on for decades, because although there are younger competitors, there is a lack of depth which means there are no great younger competitors. With more and more people trying out for a sport as it becomes lucrative, these winning streaks become shorter and shorter.

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