The anthropometric, physiological, and psychological characteristics of an athlete significantly influence their success in various athletics events. The article presents a study comparing age and height-weight indicators of male runners in distances ranging from 100 m to 42.195 km, including finalists of the Olympic Games from 1896 to 2024. It was found that as the distance increases, the height-weight indicators of runners decrease. The difference between the data of middle-distance and long-distance runners in height and weight is especially noticeable. In short-distance runners, a gradual increase in height and weight indicators is observed during the study period, in long-distance runners and marathon runners, since the middle of the twentieth century, a stable trend towards weight and BMI reduction has been noticeable. At the same time, marathon runners are significantly 4.36 years higher than the average age of other runners. With each new Olympic cycle, the difference between the performance of runners of different specializations only increases: 50 years ago, the difference in height between the average finalist of the Olympic Games in the 100 m and 42.195 km was 5.46 cm, and in the weight of 12.29 kg, today these figures have increased to 9.67 cm and 15.94 kg.
athletics, running athletics, Olympic Games, men, height-weight indicators, body mass index
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