Comparing the physiques of elite Polish female and male swimmers training for short and long distances with their non-training peers – Is swimming a health-promoting sport?

by Aleksandra Stachowicz, Anna Kęska, Katarzyna Milde, Małgorzata Stachowicz

In athletes, anthropometric measures are widely used to prescribe desirable body weight, to optimize competitive performance, and to evaluate the effectiveness of various training regimens. However, it also seems interesting to find out which values of anthropometric indices showing a significant relationship with health risk characterise the top athletes, especially in popular sports. The aim of the study was to characterise the physique of female and male swimmers compared to their non-training peers and to determine to what extent it is influenced by training distance. Somatic measurements were taken in 30 female and 30 male top Polish swimmers. The subjects were divided into four groups, i.e., SDF (n = 24) and SDM (n = 24) groups comprising females and males training for short-distance, and LDF (n = 6) and LDM (n = 6) groups comprising those training for long-distance. The swimmers were compared with their non-training peers, 373 females and 155 males aged 20–30 years. BMI, WHR, BF, BAI and Slenderness index were calculated to describe the athletes’ physiques. Swimmers had significantly lower BMI (19.3 ± 1.4 in SDF and 22.1 ± 0.6 in LDF compared to 23.1 ± 3.7 in non-swimmers, p p p p