Using expert opinion to identify athlete characteristics associated with able-bodied podium success in speed/power-based track and field events.

Introduction: To date, there is no clear objective or holistic data that can identify able-bodied track and field (T&F) athletes with the greatest potential for podium success at benchmark events (BME). Historically the assessment of athletic ability has been unidimensional, with a focus on physical or biological capabilities only. However, given the multidimensional nature of sporting success, an integrated approach that considers the biological, psychological and social domains may provide unique insights that better inform predictors of success. The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the characteristic’s experts believe set medal winning athletes at BME apart from their non-medal winning counterparts in speed/power-based T&F events (100m, 200m, 400m, 100/110m hurdles, 400m hurdles, long jump, triple jump, and high jump). Methods: Twenty-nine experts (elite level coaches and sport science, sport medicine staff) volunteered to complete this study; an initial questionnaire followed by an open-ended semi-structured interview. Experts were presented with the scenario ‘We would like you to think of an athlete who has medalled at the Olympic Games or World Championships, in an event you have coached or work closely with’ and then asked question ‘Thinking about this athlete holistically, what do you believe sets this athlete apart from other non-medal winning athletes?’. NVivo 12 (QSR International, USA) was used to carry out the quantitative content analysis of the transcripts. Experts were grouped into short sprints (100m, 200m, 100/110m hurdles), long sprints (400m, 400m hurdles), horizontal jumps (long jump/triple jump) and vertical jumps (high jump) based on the event they identified during the interview. Results: Of the 29 experts interviewed, 14 (48 %) identified working with the short sprints event group, 10 (34 %) identified working with the long sprints events group, seven (24 %) identified working with horizontal jumps group, and four (14 %) identified working with the vertical jumps group. A total of 81 characteristics were identified by experts across the biological, psychological, and social domains. Discussion: For track-based speed/power events the emphasis was on biological characteristics (46%), however consideration was still given to psychological (28%) and social (17%) characteristics. For field-based speed/power events experts focused on psychological characteristics (47%), followed by characteristics in the biological (33%) and social (20%) domains. Multiple characteristics were common across event groups, which is not unexpected given similarities in demands in events classified as speed/power in this study. Impact/Application to the field: Experts in Australia are aware that for an athlete to achieve BME podium success they require more than simply superior biological traits and there is no single factor that will enable an athlete to be the best. Declaration: My co-authors and I acknowledge that we have no conflict of interest of relevance to the submission of this abstract.