Pistol and Rifle Performance: Gender and Relative Age Effect Analysis

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Performance Analysis
• Biomechanical Research

Background:

• Relative Age Effect (RAE) describes the overrepresentation of early-born athletes in a given selection year.
• Gender performance disparities are sport-specific.
• Precision shooting events were examined for RAE and gender performance differences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare performance between genders in precision shooting.
• To investigate the influence of Relative Age Effect (RAE) on shooting performance.
• To analyze RAE and gender differences across different shooting disciplines and categories.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 704 elite shooters from a World Shooting Championship.
• Performance comparison based on event (rifle, pistol), gender (male, female), and category (junior, senior).
• Inclusion of Relative Age Effect (RAE) and ranking positions in the analysis.

Main Results:

• Men demonstrated higher scores than women in pistol events.
• No significant performance differences were observed between genders in rifle events overall.
• No association was found between birth trimester (RAE) and shooting performance.

Conclusions:

• Men's pistol performance exceeds women's, independent of RAE.
• General performance was equal between genders, but category and event modified results without RAE influence.
• RAE does not appear to be a significant factor in shooting performance.