One reason this might happen with women is that some women's bodies become
less streamlined as they get past puberty. I can't really think of any
other physiological explanation.
Of course, there are always exceptions. Angel Martino is still going
best times, and she's 28.
In general I'd say that swimming seems to be more dominated by youth than
I would expect, based on what I've seen in other endurance sports.
Most general sports science books I've read
indicate that both men and women can continue to improve at both
endurance and strength based sports into their 30's. People start losing
their sprinting capabilities a bit earlier, so I could see the sprinters
losing it at an early age, although not by much -- eg, Rowdy Gains is 37,
and can still do a 100M freestyle in 51 seconds.
For the distance events, I would think that swimmers could continue to
be near their peak past 30. It's not uncommon for
top marathoners to be in their late 30's. Tour de France cyclists seem
to peak in their late 20's/early 30's.
Based on this, and based on the fact that we are seeing more older swimmers
at trials than before, and based on the fact that really top swimmers
are not nearly as bound by rules which restrict them from being paid
to swim, I think we'll see a lot more old swimmers staying on
top in the future.
Eric Keiter
Marko Velikonja
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