Somatotypological characteristics of athletes of various sports

Objective: currently, many researchers are evaluating the morphological parameters of athletes in order to determine the morphofunctional status, which is only a small part of a comprehensive survey devoted, for example, to assessing nutrition or sports achievements. However, the primary task of sports morphology remains the search for “preferred” or “reference” somatotypes characteristic of a particular sport, since the key to sports success is not only the most effective fitness and endurance, but also the morphological status characteristic of a particular sport (anthropometric indicators, body composition and somatotypological profile).

Purpose of the study: to summarize the data available to date, based on the results of original studies related to sports somatotypology.

Materials and methods: to solve the tasks set, an analysis of the scientific and methodological literature devoted to the somatotypological characteristics of athletes of various groups and sports was used. 29 literature sources were analyzed, the data of literary (15) and own (14) studies on the problem of sports somatotypology were summarized.

Results: the summary tables contain the somatotypological characteristics of athletes according to the time periods of work on determining the somatotypological profile of athletes. Table 1 presents the results of examinations by Mrtirosov Eduard Georgievich, a leading specialist in the field of functional and sports morphology, whose research dates back to the 1980s — 2000s. Table 2 contains a few results of studies conducted over the past 10 years, in which, as in the studies of Martirosov E.G., emphasis was placed on an integrated approach to assessing the physical development of athletes. Table 3 shows the result of studies carried out as part of the work of the Laboratory of Sports Anthropology and Nutrition (since January 2022 — the Laboratory of Anthroponutriology and Sports Nutrition) of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Federal Research Center of Nutrition and Biotechnology" from 2018 to 2021, affecting some groups of sports, with the aim of determining the dynamics of the components of the somatotype of athletes depending on gender, age, sport, weight category, as well as playing roles.  

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