Alan
From: Roger Ruth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Roger Ruth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Subject: t-and-f: How big?
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2003 10:54:42 -0700
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With that subject line, I may already have lost everybody with good spam filters on their computer. That's all right, it doesn't matter much. There's probably less here than meets the eye. This project began with my watching the 1500m at the world championships and wondering whether Canada's Kevin Sullivan was really that big, or whether the other runners were all that small. As I learned, when I checked heights and weights, list member Sully, at 180cm/68kg, is not much taller than the average 1500m runner, but 10 lbs heavier. That got me started, though, on looking at size differences across disciplines.
I went about that by copying the heights and weights of each athlete in each event for the top ten on Mirko Jalava's 2002 outdoor world lists, found at <http://www.tilastopaja.com>. In the occasional instance where Mirko didn't have those data, I supplemented his information with that from Peter Matthews' 2003 ATFS Annual. (Mirko's 2003 lists aren't yet finalized, and Peter's 2003 outdoor data will be printed in the 2004 ATSF Annual.)
You'll see that there are very few surprises in the summary. Sprinters are taller than distance runners. Throwers are heavier than jumpers. I guess we knew that. Perhaps the event-by-event data tell us something about the magnitude of those differences. Even so, a statistician whose work I value has cautioned me that published heights and weights often are not current and occasionally are considerably inaccurate.
In the chart below, I have shown the average height and weight of the top ten ranking athletes in both metric and imperial measures. Following that, I list the tallest, shortest, heaviest, and lightest of those top ten competitors. I'll follow this posting of the data for men with a second one for women.
Heights and weights of top-ten ranking men:
100m 177.9 cm (5'10") 75.8 kg (167 lbs) T:191/91 S:168/68 H:191/91 L:168/68
200m 181.0 cm (5'11 1/4") 72.7 kg (160 lbs) T:195/74 S:168/68 H:183/77 L:180/67
400m 183.9 cm (6' 1/4") 76.2 kg (168 lbs) T:190/79 S:173/73 H:183/85 L:178/64
800m 177.7 cm (5'10") 63.2 kg (139 lbs) T:190/79 S:170/58 H:190/79 L:173/55
1500m 177.5 cm (5'10") 63.1 kg (139 lbs) T:190/79 S:172/58 H:190/79 L:174/56
5km 170.6 cm (5'7 1/4") 58.4 kg (128 lbs) T:180/66 S:159/56 H:180/66 L:167/50
10km 169.1 cm (5'6 1/2") 54.5 kg (120 lbs) T:178/56 S:159/56 H:168/58 L:167/50
Marathon 174.0 cm (5'8 1/2") 60.5 kg (133 lbs) T:186/64 S:164/53 H:175/70 L:164/53
Steeplechase 170.3 cm (5'7") 63.7 kg (140 lbs) T:189/68 S:165/55 H:180/69 L:167/52
100m Hurdles 184.7 cm (6' 3/4") 76.9 kg (169 lbs) T:191/82 S:179/70 H:185/84 L:180/70
400m Hurdles 183.9 cm (6' 1/2") 76.2 kg (168 lbs) T:190/79 S:173/73 H:183/85 L:178/64
High Jump 193.4 cm (6'4 1/4") 79.3 kg (174 lbs) T:206/100 S:181/70 H:206/100 L:189/66
Pole Vault 189.3 cm (6'2 1/2") 80.9 kg (178 lbs) T:203/90 S:177/64 H:203/90 L:177/64
Long Jump 182.0 cm (5'11 1/2") 76.3 kg (168 lbs) T:194/84 S:174/64 H:188/85 L:174/64
Triple Jump 187.6 cm (6'2") 78.8 kg (173 lbs) T:193/72 S:181/71 H:192/91 L:181/71
Shot Put 190.9 cm (6'3 1/4") 124.0 kg (273 lbs) T:200/135 S:183/114 H:200/135 L:196/113
Discus Throw 196.1 cm (6'5 1/4") 114.0 kg (251 lbs) T:203/118 S:190/120 H:200/130 L:192/100
Hammer Throw 190.7 cm (6'3") 105.2 kg (231 lbs) T:197/130 S:183/98 H:194/110 L:187/84
Javelin Throw 190.1 cm (6'2 3/4") 90.1 kg (198 lbs) T:196/95 S:183/83 H:196/95 L:186/77
Decathlon 186.7 cm (6'1 1/2") 83.7 kg (184 lbs) T:193/93 S:180/79 H:193/93 L:182/78
20km Walk 172.9 cm (5'8") 59.4 kg (131 lbs) T:176/64 S:168/60 H:172/68 L:173/55
50km Walk 176.5 cm (5'9 1/2") 63.8 kg (140 lbs) T:185/72 S:168/60 H:185/72 L:168/60
(Metric to imperial conversions: Multiply height in meters by 3.281 to obtain height in feet. Multiply weight in kilos by 2.2 to obtain weight in pounds. In my averages, I've rounded to the nearest quarter inch and nearest pound.)
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