Abstract

Throughout the sport-science and sports-medicine literature, the term “elite” subjects might be one of the most overused and ill-defined terms. Currently, there is no common perspective or terminology to characterize the caliber and training status of an individual or cohort. This paper presents a 6-tiered Participant Classification Framework whereby all individuals across a spectrum of exercise backgrounds and athletic abilities can be classified. The Participant Classification Framework uses training volume and performance metrics to classify a participant to one of the following: Tier 0: Sedentary; Tier 1: Recreationally Active; Tier 2: Trained/Developmental; Tier 3: Highly Trained/National Level; Tier 4: Elite/International Level; or Tier 5: World Class. We suggest the Participant Classification Framework can be used to classify participants both prospectively (as part of study participant recruitment) and retrospectively (during systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses). Discussion around how the Participant Classification Framework can be tailored toward different sports, athletes, and/or events has occurred, and sport-specific examples provided. Additional nuances such as depth of sport participation, nationality differences, and gender parity within a sport are all discussed. Finally, chronological age with reference to the junior and masters athlete, as well as the Paralympic athlete, and their inclusion within the Participant Classification Framework has also been considered. It is our intention that this framework be widely implemented to systematically classify participants in research featuring exercise, sport, performance, health, and/or fitness outcomes going forward, providing the much-needed uniformity to classification practices.

Keywords

athleteclassification systemeliteexerciserecreationally activeterminology

MeSH Terms

AthletesAthletic PerformanceExerciseHumansRetrospective StudiesSportsSports Medicine

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Publication Info

Year
2021
Type
article
Volume
17
Issue
2
Pages
317-331
Citations
1791
Access
Closed

Social Impact

Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions

Citation Metrics

1791
OpenAlex
155
Influential
1737
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Cite This

Alannah K.A McKay, TRENT STELLINGWERFF, Ella S. Smith et al. (2021). Defining Training and Performance Caliber: A Participant Classification Framework. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance , 17 (2) , 317-331. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.2021-0451

Identifiers

DOI
10.1123/ijspp.2021-0451
PMID
34965513

Data Quality

Data completeness: 86%