Limits in endurance performance of octogenarian athletes

Authors

Romuald Lepers, University of Bourgogne
Paul J. Stapley, University of WollongongFollow
Thomas Cattagni, University of Bourgogne
Vincent Gremeaux, University of Bourgogne
Beat Knechtle, University of Zurich

RIS ID

77082

Publication Details

Lepers, R., Stapley, P. J., Cattagni, T., Gremeaux, V. & Knechtle, B. 2013, 'Limits in endurance performance of octogenarian athletes', Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 114, no. 6, pp. 829-829.

Abstract

to the editor: A recent study of Trappe et al. (3) showed that the aerobic power of octogenarian lifelong endurance athletes was approximately double that of untrained octogenarians (38 vs. 21 ml·kg−1·min−1). These remarkable aerobic capacities are the highest ever recorded in this age group. However, the impact of the identified physiological capacities on actual endurance performances has not been addressed, as no running performance indicators of the octogenarian athletes were provided in this study. We hereby suggest that, although trained octogenarian athletes can achieve levels of aerobic fitness well above their untrained counterpart, as a group they actually have not yet reached their limits of endurance performance.