In the research of age-related performance declines, the value of cross-sectional versus longitudinal data is an ongoing debate. This paper analyses the largest longitudinal master track and field data set ever published to compare the age-related decline in performance between 16 athletics disciplines in cross-sectional and longitudinal data. The data set contained 83,209 results (64,948 from men, 78.1%; 18,261 from women, 21.9%) from 34,132 athletes (26,186 men, 76.7%; 7946 women, 23.3%), aged 35–97 years. In 61 athletes, 20 or more, and in 312 athletes, 15 or more results were available. The data were analyzed by regression statistics/ANCOVA. Men had a higher performance than women, irrespective of discipline in both cross-sectional and longitudinal data (p < 0.001). The performance in cross-sectional data was lower compared with the longitudinal data in all events and at any age (p ≤ 0.007) except for 1000 m men. The average age was lower in the cross-sectional than the longitudinal data (p < 0.001); men 46 and 58 years, women 44 and 56 years, respectively. The annual percentage rate of decline did not differ significantly between cross-sectional and longitudinal data, or between sexes in most disciplines. Performance declines after age 70 were 1.7 times (men) and 1.4 times (women) as steep as before. In conclusion, although longitudinal master athletics data of athletes with 10 and more results has higher average performance and age compared with cross-sectional data, cross-sectional data give a good impression of the annual percentage decline in performance, which was similar in men and women.

在与年龄有关的性能下降的研究中，横截面数据与纵向数据的价值一直在争论中。本文分析了有史以来最大的纵向主要田径数据集，以比较16个体育学科在横截面和纵向数据中与年龄相关的性能下降。该数据集包含了35-97岁年龄段的34,132名运动员（26,186名男性，占76.7％； 7946名女性，占23.3％）的83,209项结果（男性为64,948，占78.1％；女性为18,261，为21.9％）。在61名运动员中，有20名或以上，在312名运动员中，有15名或以上的结果。通过回归统计/ ANCOVA分析数据。不论横断面和纵向数据如何，男人的表现都比女人高（p <0.001）。在横截面数据的性能在所有的事件和在任何年龄（纵向数据下相比p  ≤0.007）除了千米男子。横截面的平均年龄低于纵向数据（p <0.001）; 男性分别为46岁和58岁，女性分别为44岁和56岁。在横截面和纵向数据之间，或在大多数学科中，性别之间的年度下降百分比没有显着差异。70岁以后的表现下降幅度是以前的1.7倍（男性）和1.4倍（女性）。总之，尽管与横截面数据相比，具有10个或更多成绩的运动员的纵向主竞技数据具有更高的平均成绩和年龄，但横截面数据对成绩的年度下降百分比有很好的印象，这在男性和女性中相似。女人。