Athletic performance and age - a comparison over 100 years

Author: Alan Jackson

Earl Fee at the 2010 USATF Masters

Championships. Image by Andrew

Hecker via Wikimedia Commons.

This short article compares the current performances of athletes between the ages of 40 and 100 with those of Olympic medallists of a hundred years ago. Competitions for athletes above a range of minimum ages have been held for around fifty years (under various names, usually including the word “Masters”). Comparing the results of the 1912 Olympic Games with the current records for male athletes between the ages of 40 and 100 shows that for eight standard athletic events (100m and 200m sprints, marathon, high and long jumps, and three throwing events):

• the current 40-year-old record holders would have easily won Olympic gold in all of the 8 events;
• the 50-year-olds would have comfortably won Olympic gold in 5 out of the 8 events;
• the 60-year-olds would have won Olympic gold in 4 out of the 8 events;
• the 70-year-olds would have won two Olympic golds and one silver;
• the 80-year-olds would have won one Olympic gold;
• the 90-year-olds would have thrown between a half and two thirds of the distances achieved by the Olympic Medallists in the throwing events.

The results

These are the results from the 1912 Olympic Games held in Stockholm:

And these are the current records for the same events for people over the age of 40:

The comparisons:

The 80-year-old would have finished 3½ seconds after the Olympic gold medallist.

The 70-year-old would have finished just under 5 seconds after the Olympic gold medallist.

The 70-year-old would have finished 18 minutes after the Olympic gold medallist.

The 70-year-old would have jumped about a foot lower than the Olympic gold medallist.

The 60-year-old would have jumped five feet less than the Olympic gold medallist.

The 90-year-old would have thrown two-thirds as far as the gold medallist.

The 90-year-old would have thrown about two-thirds as far as the Olympic medallists.

The 80-year-old would have thrown three-quarters as far as the Olympic gold medallist and seven-eights as far as the silver medallist.