Relative age effect on Turkish national paralympic athletes

Paralympic athletes and relative age effect

Abstract

The aim of this study was to systematically examine the effect of the "Relative Age Effect" on the competitive performance of Turkish National Paralympic athletes in individual and team sports at the international level. The literature between January 1985 and December 2022 was reviewed for a comprehensive assessment of the relative age effect. The methodology of the study was determined as "Basic Qualitative Research" and "Document Analysis" was used as the data collection technique. A descriptive analysis approach such as the Miles-Huberman model was adopted to analyze the data. The population of this research consists of Paralympic national athletes, while the sample consists of Turkish Paralympic national athletes. Density sampling was used as the sampling method, meaning that the selection of the sample was concentrated according to certain criteria. The results obtained highlight that the birth dates of Paralympic Turkish National athletes are concentrated in certain periods and which period of the election year they fall in. Additionally, by examining the birth dates of Turkish athletes who won medals at the Paralympic Games, it was seen that the majority of athletes were born in the first half of the election year. In another dimension of the analysis, paralympic national athletes of both genders, men and women, are also affected by the relative age effect.