Age of Peak Athletic Ability

Probably your 20s or early 30s at best. After your 30s, your height, testosterone, metabolism, looks, and energy all go on a steady and inevitable decline.

Ask yourself why so many top marathoners are in the mid 20s - early 30s. Your body is on terminal decline after your 30s, both in. muscle mass and speed

Unless you're Carlos lopes

I read somewhere that it's 32 for males and then you start to lose testosterone and you slowly start to become the frail old man you will eventually be.

20-40

Ummm assuming it's a male you are posting about then I guess it would be between 26-33. And for the second part idk maybe it would take a little less time because of your muscle memory

I don't know. Ask someone.

Depends on the sport. The more nuanced it is, the later the peak. The more physical it is, the earlier the peak.

Running falls into the second category. Most elites peak around 23-25 years old, and that coincides with a peak in their bone mass. Among the many other factors (obviously), skeletal strength is extremely important.

Cyclists peak later typically because it's more of a chess match than running, where the most fit athletes almost always wins unless they are a total fool.

Coach J wrote:

Depends on the sport. The more nuanced it is, the later the peak. The more physical it is, the earlier the peak.

Running falls into the second category. Most elites peak around 23-25 years old, and that coincides with a peak in their bone mass. Among the many other factors (obviously), skeletal strength is extremely important.

Cyclists peak later typically because it's more of a chess match than running, where the most fit athletes almost always wins unless they are a total fool.

I agree with some of this. However, I think the age of athletic peak for runners is a little higher than the 23-25 mentioned. I think it's more like 25-29. If you look at the wlites, most of them are posting some of their faster times between those ages.

Don't concern yourself with marathoning. That isn't natural. Everything is different.

Flexibility-Teens

Aerobic (Mile-5K)- Mid 20s

Speed- Mid 20s

Agility-Mid 20s

Hand Eye Coordination-Late 20s

Power-Late 20s

Strength-Early 30s

Distance running is not about muscle mass and speed.

100m WR - Bolt - 22

200m WR - Bolt - 22 (1 day before 23)

400m WR - MJ - 31!

800m WR - King David - 23

1500m WR - El G - 23

3000m WR - Komen - 23

5000m WR - Bekele - 21

10^4m WR - Bekele - 23

HM WR - Tadese - 27

3K Steeple - Shaheen - 21

400IH - Young - 25

110HH - Merrit - 27

MAR - Kimetto - 30

The more technical and longer events may be more "like 25-29", but the most popular events are dominated by those around the age of 23.

Andrew Wheating's PRs - Age 22

Alan Webb - 3K & 5K PRs at Age 22 - 10K PR at Age 23 - 1500/Mile PRs at Age 24

Galen Rupp - 3K & 5K PR at Age 26 - 10K PR at Age 28

Mo Farah - 5K & 10K PR at Age 28

Michael Johnson is the biggest outlier of the group. Then Farah, Rupp, Merrit, Kimetto and Tadesse.

Best bet appears to be 23.

Nearly all 1500 runners run their lifetime bests by their mid-20s.

Kim Jong Il - Age 0 through 65 (every year = peak)

I think a lot of variables go into all the fast times being run during mid/early 20's. However I don't think the times couldn't be run at early to mid 30's. Especially if you come from a western country and serious training doesn't start until early 20's.

1) Injuries. You have someone who has trained without injury for 6+ years no interruption in their training. The moment they get a big injury that sidelines them for several months loosing that massive base from all those years of training, it is difficult to climb back up after loosing that huge base. Think Solinsky here... He says his speed is gone, but is it really? or is it the fact he was running 90 MPW in high school and kept training at a extremely high level for close to 10 years without injury? It took him that long to lay that awesome base. I mean Lagat could be a genetic freak, or it could be the fact that he really hasn't had a serious injury his whole career.

Few examples here:

Farah 1500m 3:28!!!! age 30!

Nick Willis runs PB this Summer age 31 Sub 3:30 first time in career!

John Walker First man to break 3:50 mile shaved a few tenths off his 3:49 at age 30! 7 years after he broke 3:50 for the firs time!

Lagat !!

El G won double gold at 30?

I think it is absolutely possible to maintain a high level of training and fitness through your early and mid 30's, however only if you stay healthy and avoid major injuries. If sprinters can run fast into their early 30's why can't distance runners... I think weight training really comes into play here after the age of 30.... maintaining muscle mass and testosterone through weight lifting is key for older distance runners.

You're a bit delusional but not a total looser.

I peaked at 45. Gebreselassie got the world marathon record at 35 and Carlos Lopez won Olympic Gold at 37 and a world record at 38.

We may have our peak potential at 20-30 but there is more to running than that isn't there?

Coach J wrote:

100m WR - Bolt - 22

200m WR - Bolt - 22 (1 day before 23)

400m WR - MJ - 31!

800m WR - King David - 23

1500m WR - El G - 23

3000m WR - Komen - 23

5000m WR - Bekele - 21

10^4m WR - Bekele - 23

HM WR - Tadese - 27

3K Steeple - Shaheen - 21

400IH - Young - 25

110HH - Merrit - 27

MAR - Kimetto - 30

The more technical and longer events may be more "like 25-29", but the most popular events are dominated by those around the age of 23.

So the big question is the HM/Marathon. If the 10K peak is 23 why not the HM? I suspect that the real answer for HM might be about 25 and Marathon about 27. Folks don't run records at that age because they spend years trying shorter distances. As has been said many times, if a kid was groomed from the start for the marathon, the physical peak would be found to be barely over 25.

Probably because HM and MAR performances are affected more by on-the-run nutrition and pacing, which is difficult for a lot of people to figure out. Additionally, you only get 1-3 chances per year for a peak race at those distances. That makes for some slow learning.