engleski

DIFFERENCES IN MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FEMALE ATHLETES - OLYMPIC FINALISTS IN THROWING DISCIPLINES FROM 2000 TO 2016

The aim of this research was to analyse the differences in morphological characteristics of female athletes-Olympic finalists in throwing disciplines from 2000 to 2016 (discus throwers, hammer throwers, javelin throwers and shot putters). The sample consisted of 160 finalists in throwing disciplines (40 finalists per each discipline), and common parameters such as body height (BH), body weight (BW), body mass index (BMI) and age (AGE) were used in order to determine the morphological differences between the athletes. The collected data were processed using Statistica 12.0 analytics software. The basic descriptive parameters were calculated for the variables in this research and the significance of differences between the subsample regarding the morphological characteristics was tested with the one-way ANOVA. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis and Mann- Whitney tests were also used in this research. Statistical significance of differences was tested at the level of significance p < 0, 05. The results indicate that there are statistically significant differences between athletes according to the discipline criterion in variables BH, BW and BMI. It was determined for the body height variable that javelin throwers (M=176, 08) and hammer throwers (M=174, 38) are significantly shorter than shot putters (M=181, 80) and discus throwers (M=181, 75). For the body weight variable, it was determined by the use of non-parametric tests that there is a statistically significant difference between all combinations of throwing disciplines, and for the BMI variable that there is also a statisticall significant difference between all throwing disciplines, except between hammer and discus throwers. Statistically significant difference was not determined for the age variable. The results of this research should undoubtedly help trainers with selection and training of potentially top- level athletes, which can also contribute to the decrease of deficit in the diagnostics of the morphological characteristics against physical abilities.

Olympic Games, thrower disciplines, morphological characteristics

nije evidentirano