Perfil de Especialización Deportiva en Deportistas Juveniles Argentinos Preseleccionados para los Juegos Olímpicos de la Juventud 2018

Abstract

The objective was to analyze the sports specialization profile in pre-selected Argentine youth athletes for participation in 2018 Youth Olympic Games. Sports specialization has been defined as intense, year-round training in a single sport with the exclusion of other sports. Early specialization was defined in three ways: before 12, before 15, and before 16 years old. The survey method was applied to a sample of 396 Argentine youth athletes of different sports. Results were analyzed according to type of sport. Significant differences were found between the different types of sports in the age of begin of sports practice and in the age of exclusive begin in the main sport (X2(4)=28,886, p=0,000 and X2(4)=19,596, p=0,001 respectively). With the 12-year criterion, early specialization occurred between 33 and 84% of cases, depending on the type of sport. With the other criteria, early specialization occurred between 90 and 100% of cases. It was concluded that these Argentine athletes present a sports specialization profile with a tendency towards early specialization. From this it is suggested to monitor sport development process of these athletes.