Tag Archives: ages

Ages of medalists at 2009 Judo World Cup events.

Airborn combatIn this post we shall briefly look at the ages of the Judoka competing at the latest Judo World Cup events in Europe. The two events are the 2009 – World Cup – Prague, and the World Cup Warsaw – 2009. Prague was a womens event, Warsaw a mens event.

Method:

  • Ages and results were obtained from the JudoInside website for both events.
  • Data was analyzed for medalists only
  • Statistics between winners and silver and bronze medalists is compared.

Results:

  • 24.95    Average Age of medalist
  • 34    Max oldest medalist
  • 17    Min youngest medalist

Winners/Gold Medalist:

  • FEMALE:  Average age: 25.14(+-5.67)    Max: 34    Min: 19
  • MALE: Average age: 26.2(+-4.66)    Max: 32    Min: 21

Non-Winners/Silver and Bronze:

  • FEMALE: Average age: 25.15(+-3.62) Max: 31 Min: 17
  • MALE: Average age: 24.4(+-3.62) Max: 33    Min: 20

Discusssion:

The sample size for here is very small, a mere 52 data points (of a possible 56).The analysis is in no way comprehensive.

Target age of players to compete in these events:
The ideal target age to be ready to compete in these events is between  19.47 and 30.81 for women and 21.54 and 30.86 for men. How this relates to the 2012 games is a matter of debate, but these target ages suggest either that athletes winning in London will be approximately 28, or that the older athletes competing today will be retired by London 2012, thereby keeping average ages down.

The age span is quite large 17-34, with average winners age being 25-26 years of age. This perhaps indicates younger athltetes need to spend several years at this level before winning. This could be tested by a further examination of ages for those who did not make the medals potentially.

Talent ID:
For countries looking for players to medal at London 2012 this brief analysis could suggest that they need to be focusing on players who are presently around 22 years of age. For the next Olympic games in 2016 a further talent squad could/should be identified who are approximately 18 years old. This could be extended to 2020, 14 years old now.