Fat patterning in athletes in relation to ethnic origin and sport

Six skinfold measurements of 92 White, Black and Mexican-American high school varsity female athletes were analysed to identify principal components of fatness and relative fat patterning. As in other athletic and non-athletic samples, two principal components were evident: a first component, accounting for 69% of the variation, was positively related to all skinfold sites, and a second principal component, accounting for 11% of the variation, was correlated positively with extremity sites (particularly lower limb sites) and negatively with trunk sites. The first component (fatness) was significantly related to sport (P less than 0.02) but not ethnicity. The second component (extremity/trunk) was significantly related to ethnicity (P less than 0.01) but not sport. These results, although tentative due to the limited sample size, support our earlier findings on Olympic athletes, i.e., fatness is more influenced by sport and by training than is fat patterning.