Ventilatory threshold in young and adult female athletes

We determined in a laboratory on the treadmill the ventilatory threshold in relatively similarly trained groups of young and adult female athletes (14 adult long-distance runners mean age = 24.3 +/- 2.3 yrs; mean VO2max.kg-1 = 66.9 +/- 4.2 ml.kg-1.min-1; 11 adolescents 16.3 +/- 0.9; 58.4 +/- 4.4; 10 adult middle distance runners mean age = 22.9 +/- 2.9 yrs and VO2max.kg-1 = 62.3 +/- 3.7 ml/kg-1/min-1; 16 juniors 16.6 +/- 0.8 and 15.1 +/- 2.8; 7 adult canoeists 21.1 +/- 2.1 and 50.0 +/- 2.9; 8 adolescents 16.0 +/- 0.9 and 48.2 +/- 2.6). Maximal blood lactate concentration was found in all groups slightly lower in young athletes than in adults (in long-distance runners 10.9 +/- 2.6 vs 11.4 +/- 3.2 mmol.l-1; in middle-distance runners 12.4 +/- 2.3 vs 12.7 +/- 2.9; in canoeists 11.8 +/- 3.3 vs 12.1 +/- 3.6). The differences in maximal blood lactate concentration were nonsignificant in all groups. We did not find any significant differences in percentage of maximal aerobic power on the ventilatory threshold level. In long-distance runners the mean value of % VO2max at AT was 85.1 +/- 3.8% for adults and 84.9 +/- 2.7% for adolescents, in middle-distance runners 82.9 +/- 2.1% and 82.6 +/- 3.2%, respectively, and in adult canoeists 79.9 +/- 2.6%, and in juniors 79.4 +/- 3.0%. According to these results we can conclude that the physical activity and/or level of physical fitness seem to be main factors which may influence the values of % VO2max at VT during the growth.