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arXiv · 1001.4070

Relative Age Effect in Elite Sports: Methodological Bias or Real Discrimination?

Nicolas Delorme·Julie Boiché·Michel Raspaud
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Abstract

Sport sciences researchers talk about a relative age effect when they observe a biased distribution of elite athletes' birthdates, with an over-representation of those born at the beginning of the competitive year and an under-representation of those born at the end. Using the whole sample of the French male licensed soccer players (n = 1,831,524), our study suggests that there could be an important bias in the statistical test of this effect. This bias could in turn lead to falsely conclude to a systemic discrimination in the recruitment of professional players. Our findings question the accuracy of past results concerning the existence of this effect at the elite level.

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Nicolas Delorme, Julie Boiché, Michel Raspaud. 2010-01-22. Relative Age Effect in Elite Sports: Methodological Bias or Real Discrimination?. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461390903271584

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