Relative age effect in the fencing 2022-2023 World Championships

Fabiana Bonito^1*Joana Rita Gomes Viães²Júlia Teles¹Luis Alberto Flores³Xavier Iglesias⁴Maria Isabel Caldas Januário Fragoso^1*

• ¹Interdisciplinary Center for Human Performance, Faculty of Human Motricity, University of Lisbon, Dafundo, Portugal
• ²Faculty of Human Motricity, University of Lisbon, Dafundo, Portugal
• ³Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico
• ⁴National Institute of Physical Education of Catalonia, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

This study aimed to investigate the presence of Relative Age Effect (RAE) in the fencing World Championships of 2022-2023 season across three age categories. For that purpose, data from the participants of the World Championships was collected from the International Fencing Federation, resulting in a total of 2791 participants distributed according to the age categories: 713 cadets, 1048 juniors, and 1030 senior athletes. The data collected concerned the athletes' birth date, birth quartile, sex, weapon, age category, country, continental area and world championship result. An athlete's relative classification was computed using their competition classification and the total number of participants in the event. The Chi-square goodness of fit test was performed to assess the presence of RAE, examining differences in birth quarter distribution across the total sample, for each sex, and for the 18 events. Follow-up analyses included standardized residuals, Cramér's V effect size, and odds ratios. In events where RAE was detected, the Kruskal-Wallis and Quade's nonparametric ANCOVA tests were used to compare athletes' relative classification across birth quarters. RAE was present, in the overall sample (χ 2 (3) = 16.142, p < 0.001, V = 0.044), according to sex (female: χ 2 (3) = 10.349, p = 0.016, V = 0.053; male: χ 2 (3) = 7.987, p = 0.046, V = 0.041), and was inconclusive when focusing in each event. The complexity of results in individual sports and the lack of research in fencing makes it difficult to understand the relevance of RAE in this sport. Despite the lack and inconsistency of results in fencing, coaches should be aware of this effect.