Do Child Prodigies end up doing anything when they are older? (List of 5-19 year old Age-group records attached)

Age of success wrote:

All four of these girls went on to excellent adult careers. Rodgers and Francis are still rolling, the latter being the defending world 400 champion (with a 1500 youth record!)

Wrong Francis. Phyllis, Claudia’s sister, is the defending 400 champ.

TheJeff, why do you have to be such a dick every time you post?

If you look at the list, a lot of the records are owned by people who are still children. Of the rest, I recognize about half of them. Lots of all time greats.

In the women's 800, we've all heard of Rayvyn Rogers, Mary Decker, Keely Small, Castor Semenya. I googled Birte Bruhns, she won the Junior World Championship for East Germany and then the Berlin Wall fell.

In the women's mile/1500, Georgie Clarke, Mary Cain, and Zola Budd are all well known, the rest are mostly still children.

For men the records were set more recently and the number of people who are still children is higher, but there are still a lot of familiar names.

GBohannon wrote:

Age of success wrote:

All four of these girls went on to excellent adult careers. Rodgers and Francis are still rolling, the latter being the defending world 400 champion (with a 1500 youth record!)

Wrong Francis. Phyllis, Claudia’s sister, is the defending 400 champ.

Lol I forgot she had a fast sister. Quite a sibling pair! Nonetheless, Claudia was a successful college athlete, consistent over many events including 400H. Ended with PRs of 51.55 and 2:02.9. Phyllis has some records in the older age groups.

Pretty amazing list, with Rogers still doing very well after records of 2:13 age 11-12 and 2:06 age 13-14, now consistently under 2:00.

I would conclude that girls in events under a mile in the 11-12 age on up are worthy of long-term attention; longer distances are trickier, with exceptions like Decker and Hasay.

theJeff wrote:

erzerez wrote:

They removed the age cheats from the list.

And even if that weren't the case, 2 errors is a long way from "nowhere close to accurate".

Yes, two errors might very well be "a long way from 'nowhere close to accurate,'" so perhaps you should assume that I mentioned only two of the more glaring errors that most knowledgeable observers could spot. If you care enough to do your own research, you can find plenty of others.

The list excludes a number of countries that have had many of the best young athletes in the world.

GBohannon wrote:

Wrong Francis. Phyllis, Claudia’s sister, is the defending 400 champ.

We’re anyone from Ma’s Army ever mentioned. A lot of them set crazy world youth and world junior records but aren’t anywhere on this list. Neither are the many Japanese prodigies that run well young.

Too much effort to track in this direction. Better to see who the best in the US are right now and look at their progression. Betting that most were very good at a young age. Rupp, McLaughlin, Norman, Houlihan, Lyles; they all were good. Schweizer is one who you won’t find at a national level until 20 years old.

Predictor wrote:

Too much effort to track in this direction. Better to see who the best in the US are right now and look at their progression. Betting that most were very good at a young age.

Better or easier? This approach certainly won't help answer the OP's question. It is the same as telling the drunk who's lost his keys to go look under the light pole b/c "the light is better over there".

Two weeks ago I watched Daniel Skandera run a 4:54 full mile at my city's local track series. So he's still doing quite well. Oh and he was barefoot as usual

Two weeks ago I watched Daniel Skandera run a 4:54 full mile at my city's local track series. So he's still doing quite well. Oh and he was barefoot as usual