St Edward's Academic Review 2025

ACADEMIC REVIEW 2025

‘Many of the most successful rowers are tall’ World Rowing identifies the most successful crews in the World Rowing Awards. The Men’s Crew of the Year in 2022 went to Matthieu Androdias and Hugo Boucheron, 194cm and 192cm tall respectively. The Women’s Crew of the Year was awarded to Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis, 179cm and 184cm. All these listed heights are above their respective national height averages (World Data, 2023) and each mentioned athlete has been incredibly successful in rowing. There are many things to take into consideration when looking at this data, their level of experience will have greatly contributed to their success, but all these athletes very clearly have their tall height in common. This pattern is what programmes such as the Start programme base their approach on. This experiment aimed to examine the correlation between height and 2k erg test performance. A questionnaire was used to collect data from participants who participated in 2k erg tests during 2023. I used a sample size of 11 female rowers aged 16 to 18 years of age, measuring the time in which they completed an erg test and their respective heights. Participants were recruited through convenience sampling to ensure efficiency, leading to them all being Oxford-based during the school term. • Participants were required to read through a consent form and give permission for their data to be collected and used. All participants were 16 or older so parental consent was not necessary and participants could consent for themselves. • Data was processed and evaluated anonymously. Names were retracted after the initial data collection so that any information taken from the participants could not be traced back to them and privacy was ensured. • The 2k erg test was done through their rowing clubs in a familiar setting with coaches observing, avoiding any additional stress and all participants agreed to the data collection by their own free will. Experiment Safety and Ethics

Variables

• Dependent variable: time taken by the female adolescent athletes to complete a 2k erg test, measured in minutes and seconds. • Independent variable: the height of the female adolescent athletes, measured to the nearest cm. • Control variable: participants all fit into 16- to 18-year-old age bracket; each participant received the same questionnaire and consent form; the same distance was completed for their erg test; they had no time pressure to complete the questionnaire. • Variables that cannot be controlled for this investigation: experience of athletes – due to the limited sample there is a large variety of experience levels within the participants; whether athletes had recent injuries – this means that some athletes may have been hindered/less prepared due to injury. Mental resilience of the athletes cannot be controlled as this is not a physical measure.

Null hypothesis

There will be no significant difference between the 2k erg times of the taller and shorter athletes.

Experimental hypothesis

The athletes who are taller will be able to achieve a quicker 2k erg time than the athletes who are shorter.

‘ The GB Start programme bases its recruitment strategy on identifying ‘tall and talented’ athletes ’

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