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Methods all of the best performances achieved by centenarians were identified and compared in three disciplines: athletics, swimming and cycling. The performances were considered as an average of the respective speeds, except for jumping and throwing events for which the maximum distances performed were considered. Within each discipline, the decline in performance of centenarian athletes was expressed as a percentage of the world record for that discipline. In total, 60 performances of centenarian athletes were found. These performances belong to 19 individuals: 10 in athletics, 8 in swimming and 1 in cycling.
, Introduction Centenarians that were themselves Olympians will get to see the 25th Olympics this year, some 80 years or so after they competed. The continuous increase in life expectancy over the last decades has contributed to the growth in the number of centenarians in the world's population ,. For example, in 2015 the Queen of England sent some 9,736 wishes of congratulations to centenarians, compared to just 3,000 in 1952 when she came to the throne. Even if the total number of centenarians in the world remains uncertain, in 2013 the United Nations’ World Population Ageing 2013 estimated that there were around 4,41,000 living centenarians worldwide (i.e. 6.2 centenarians per 1,00,000 people). In 2010, more than 80% of US centenarians were female.
Centenarians are the fastest growing demographic in much of the developed world. By 2050, it is expected that there will be around 3.4 million centenarians worldwide. Centenarians are often considered as models of successful healthy ageing. Some of them reach this age milestone while maintaining notable health indices. They preserve a high level of physical activity and therefore achieve remarkable sporting performances considering their age.
In recent times centenarians have even begun to participate in sporting competitions worldwide, becoming icons of healthy ageing and provide evidence that it is never too late to start exercising and reap the benefits of regular exercise. Fauja Singh, one of the most famous centenarian athletes, was a priori the first to finish a marathon despite his performance not having yet been approved by the World Master Athletics Association (i.e. The association that validates master athlete performances in athletics). In 2014, the French cyclist Robert Marchand (102 years) set the hour record in track cycling in the 100–104-year age group. In the same year, the Japanese swimmer Mieko Nagaoka set several swimming world records (distances from 50 m to 1500 m) in the 100–104-year age group. Even though we may associate the above mentioned (and other) performances of centenarian athletes with an outstanding human capacity, the age-related decline in performance of these centenarian athletes is not actually known.
Moreover, it would be interesting to know who, of the centenarian athletes across different disciplines, attained the best performance in comparison to the respective world records of their disciplines. Method In order to investigate these two aspects of centenarian performances, we identified and compared all of the best performances achieved by centenarians in three disciplines: athletics, swimming and cycling. Data were collected from the following websites of the international association or federations: for athletics; for swimming and for cycling.
Each record performance (centenarians or non-centenarians) measured in time was expressed as an average speed over each distance (i.e. For 60 m running, 50 m swimming or 1 h track cycling, etc.). For jumping and throwing events, the performance was defined using the maximum distance obtained. In total, 60 performances of centenarian athletes were found (20 in athletics, 39 in swimming and 1 in cycling). These performances belong to 19 individuals: 10 athletes in athletics (9 males and 1 female), 8 athletes in swimming (5 males and 3 females) and 1 male athlete in cycling.
D e c l i n e i n p e r f o r m a n c e (% ) = P e r f o r m a n c e a t 100 y r s o r m o r e − W o r l d R e c o r d W o r l d r e c o r d × 100 Results The results are presented in Table. In athletics, the best centenarian performance (i.e.
The lowest percentage decrease between the world record and the centenarian record) among men was found in the high jump (−63.3%) and in the shotput (−81.9%) for women. For running, only male performances were found and the lowest decrease for a centenarian in comparison to the world record was observed in the 100 m (−64.5%). In swimming, the lowest decrease for a centenarian was observed in the 50 m backstroke for males (−73.0%) and females (−71.2%). The centenarian world record performed by Robert Marchand in track cycling appears to be the best performance (−50.6% compared with the hour world record) achieved by a centenarian, all disciplines taken together. Discussion Previous studies have shown that athletic performance is maintained until 35 years of age, followed by linear decreases to 70–80 years of age ranging from 7 to 14% per decade, depending on the discipline.
After this threshold of age, the performances in running tend to plummet, whereas the performances, for example, in throwing decline much more gently. We found that the average decline in performance of centenarian athletes was 78% in comparison with the initial world record.
Our methods of comparing records of each centenarian with the corresponding world record of that discipline provide a powerful means of assessing their performance using robust criteria. Ideally however, further information could be gained by comparing their centenarian record with each athletes’ own record. This, however, is impossible as we did not have access to that information.
Several performances completed by Fauja Singh in athletics were not considered in the present report because they are unofficial. His best performance in comparison with the respective world record was achieved in the 100 m (−59.1%, 23.4s) while, for instance, the decrease in his marathon performance was 75.7%. The performance of the centenarian cyclist Robert Marchand is outstanding and corresponds to an age-related decline in performance of less than 8% per decade for more than 6 decades. This lower age-related decline for a cycling event is consistent with previous work showing that the age-related decline in cycling performances was less compared with running and swimming ,. Irrespective of the specificity of the locomotion type, Robert Marchand has certainly shown exceptional physiological characteristics (e.g. Muscular and cardiorespiratory functions) for his age. This is in agreement with previous observations showing that centenarians have significant limitations to gas exchange across the lungs during exercise but this limited oxygen transport is tempered by improved skeletal muscle cycling efficiency.
Given the increased number of centenarians worldwide, the increased participation rate of master athletes in competitions and the development of specific competitions for master athletes, it is very likely that the number of centenarian athletes will increase in the coming years leading to progress in their performances. Only two performances of centenarian athletes were found in the 105–109-year age group while a performance of a supercentenarian (age 110 years) athlete has never been observed so far. We expect in the near future however, to observe the first sporting performance for a supercentenarian athlete. The centenarian athletes must be seen not only as exceptional biological examples but also as evidence that it is never too late to be active. We can only hypothesize that, as the number of centenarians grows and attitudes towards exercise changes in these older persons, the exceptional performances detailed here will become more commonplace, and may perhaps open new perspectives on how the human body can resist the deleterious effects of physiological ageing.
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