The best triathletes are older in longer race distances - a comparison between Olympic, half-ironman and ironman distance triathlon For the planning of the best performance in a triathlon race, many details are important.A relatively well-planned value is the age in which the best performance is to be expected. We have compiled the age of the best athletes for the Olympic Distance, half Ironman distance as well as the entire IronMan distance from all international races from 2003-2013. For men, the fastest times over the Olympic distance at 27.1 ± 4.9 years were achieved over half the Ironman distance with 28.0 ± 3.8 years and over the entire Ironman distance at 35.1 ± 3.6 years.It showed that the differences were significantly significant.For women, the fastest times over the Olympic distance at 26.6 ± 4.4 years, over half the Ironman distance, were achieved at 31.6 ± 3.4 years and over the entire Ironman distance at 34.4 ± 4.4 years.Again, the differences were significantly significant.
With these numbers, triathlets can now plan well at what age they should switch from the Olympic distance to half the Ironman and then to the whole Ironman to achieve the best times. The work can be found under https://springerplus.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/2193-1801-3-538