AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS Talent development models are frameworks that can be used to develop potential athletes. This paper intends to adapt talent development models to specific sports by investigating starting and specialising ages across Olympic disciplines. Three key research questions guided this study: (1) What are sport specific starting and specialisation ages in elite athletes? (2) Is there a relationship between one`s starting and specialising age? (3) How can we classify sports according to the starting and specialisation ages? THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW In each sport, national sporting organisations (NSOs) attempt to optimise their talent development strategies to attain excellence at, for example, the Olympic Games. However, how exactly NSOs can develop outperforming elite athletes is a source of debate between researchers with early diversification and early specialisation as contradicting developmental strategies (Barth et al., 2022). Frequently used talent development models, such as the Developmental Model of Sport Participation (DMSP) (Côté et al., 2007) and the Long-term Athlete Development Model (Balyi et al., 2013), provide age guidelines for progression through different developmental stages. However these models are not supported with empirical sport specific data on starting and specialisation ages. Because early specialisation is criticised to have harmful consequences such as social isolation and overuse injuries (Malina, 2010), it is essential that we have empirical data to differentiate early from late specialisation sports. RESEARCH DESIGN, METHODOLOGY AND DATA ANALYSIS A total of 2934 athletes (43% female), from 14 nations and 44 Olympic sports, were involved in this study. Mean sport specific starting and specialising ages were computed based on a retrospective survey of the ages in every athlete. The mean diversification period is estimated by the difference between the specialisation and starting age in each sport. Pearson`s correlation coefficient was computed to assess the linear relationship between starting and specialisation ages. Finally, according to the age categories of Côté et al. (2007), sports are classified in nine different categories based on their starting (early (<6y)/normal/late(>12y)) and specialisation ages (early(<12y)/normal/late(>16y)). FINDINGS/RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Athletes started with their current elite sport at the age of 10.6 (±5.3) years and decided to focus on this sport at the age of 15.6 (±5.0) years. Hence, the diversification period was on average 4.9 years. Sport specific starting ages vary from 6.0 years in tennis to 20.2 years in bobsleigh. Specialising ages range from 10.7 years in artistic gymnastics to 21.7 years in bobsleigh. There is only a moderate relationship between the starting age and the specialisation age (r(df)=0.639, p<0.01). In some sports, despite a relatively early start, athletes specialise only after the age of 15 years. The diversification period is the longest in skiing (7.6 years), football (7.5 years), and basketball (7.4 years). In other sports, there is only a small amount of time between the starting and specialisation age (bobsleigh (1.5 years), boxing (1.6 years), and weightlifting (1.8 years)). The findings identify artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, and synchronised swimming as early specialisation sports. Canoe, wrestling, and weightlifting are late starting sports but have a normal specialisation age. Contrarily, curling, sailing, and volleyball have a normal starting age but are characterised by a late specialisation age. Nine Olympic sports (bobsleigh, archery, triathlon, shooting, cycling, rowing, athletics, biathlon, and boxing) are characterised by both a late starting age and a late specialisation age. CONCLUSION, CONTRIBUTION, AND IMPLICATION This study contributes to the talent development literature by providing empirical data on starting and specialising ages of almost all Olympic sports. These data were used to classify sports, based on the age categories of Côté et al. (2007).Only three sports were identified as early specialisation sports. This leads to the main conclusion that for many Olympic sports, specific training from an early age is not a prerequisite for international success. In the majority of sports, which can be classified as sports with normal starting and specialisation ages, the proposed sampling path of the DMSP can lead to international top performances. Moreover, it can be assumed that in sports with a late start, athletes practised other sports before starting their main sport (e.g., archery, shooting, cycling, boxing, canoe, wrestling, weightlifting).. Therefore, opportunities for talent transfer to these sports should be explored Schmidt & Wrisberg (2000) concluded that movement skills, perceptual skills, conceptual skills, and physical conditioning are elements that could be transferable across sports. Future research should focus on the diversification phase and try to determine which sports have transferrable elements and lead to success in late starting sports. In each sport, NSOs should encourage the implementation of sport-specific developmental models with increased attention on the starting age, diversification period and specialisation age. However, the results of this study highlight that there will always remain significant variation between individual athletes in each sport.
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