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Anthropometry of Olympic Athletes from Sochi 2014

The database of athlete details from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics provides the opportunity to compare athletes from a range of elite winter sports. The database contained information about their height, weight, age, sport and country. I have analyzed this data below, comparing the male and females for each measurement, and also comparing the data for each sport.



Height of Olympic Athletes

The tallest athletes in 2014 were from ice hockey - Zdeno Chara from Slovakia was 206cm, and for females Rosa Lindstedt from Finland was 1.86m. The shortest at 146cm were Figure Skaters Narumi Takahashi from Japan (female) and Canadian Liam Firus (male).

    Average Minimum Maximum n
Males cm 181 146 206 1652
ft, inches 5' 11" 4' 9.5" 6' 9"  
Females cm 167 146 186 1113
ft, inches 5' 5.5" 4' 9.5" 6' 1"  
All cm 175 146 206 2765
ft, inches 5' 9" 4' 9.5" 6' 9"  

Weight of Olympic Athletes

The heaviest male athlete was Zdeno Chara from Slovakia at 117kg (he was also the tallest athlete at the Games). The lightest was 47 kg freestyle skier Luca Schuler from Switzerland.

    Average Minimum Maximum n
Males kg 80.7 47 117 1525
lbs 177.9 104 258  
Females kg 61.7 43 87 990
lbs 136.0 95 192  
All kg 73.2 43 117 2515
lbs 161.4 95 258  

BMI of Olympic Athletes

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a commonly used measure of fatness, calculated by dividing body mass (in kg) by the height (in meters) squared.

  Average Minimum Maximum n
Males 24.6 17.6 32.8 1525
Females 21.9 16.2 28.6 990
All 23.5 16.2 32.8 2515

Age (Years)

The oldest athlete to compete was Alpine Skier Hubertus Von Hohenlohe from Mexico who was 55 years old. At the other end of the scale, there were many 15-year-olds who competed.

  Average Minimum Maximum n
Males 26.4 15 55 1705
Females 25.1 15 48 1162
All 25.9 15 55 2867

Breakdown Per Sport

Here are the averages for each sport at the 2014 Winter Olympics. There are tables for both male and female athletes for each sport.

The sport with the oldest competitors (male and female) was curling with an average age of 29.7 years, and the youngest was figure skating at 23.4 years. Bobsled was the sport with the greatest average height (1.82m), the lowest was figure skating (1.69m).

Male Athlete Details

Sport Age Height (cm) Weight (kg) BMI
OVERALL AVERAGE (all sports) 26.4 1.81 80.7 24.6
Alpine Skiing 25.5 1.80 82.4 25.3
Biathlon 27.6 1.80 72.9 22.6
Bobsled 28.9 1.85 98.3 28.8
Cross Country Skiing 27.1 1.80 74.7 22.9
Curling 29.6 1.80 82.1 25.3
Figure Skating 24.8 1.77 - -
Freestyle Skiing 23.7 1.77 76.0 24.1
Hockey 28.3 1.85 90.5 26.4
Nordic Combined 26.1 1.79 66.1 20.9
Luge 25.4 1.81 82.0 25.0
Short-Track Skating 23.9 1.76 71.5 22.9
Skeleton 28.5 1.82 81.0 24.4
Ski Jumping 25.1 1.78 63.5 20.1
Snowboarding 24.5 1.79 75.8 23.7
Speedskating 25.5 1.80 77.4 23.8

Female Athlete Details

Sport Age Height (cm) Weight (kg) BMI
OVERALL AVERAGE (all sports) 25.1 1.67 61.7 21.9
Alpine Skiing 24.2 1.69 64.7 22.7
Biathlon 26.0 1.66 57.1 20.6
Bobsled 28.5 1.73 74.7 24.9
XC Skiing 27.0 1.67 58.1 20.8
Curling 29.9 1.66 63.8 22.2
Figure Skating 22.1 1.60 - -
Freestyle Skiing 24.2 1.65 58.9 21.5
Hockey 24.3 1.68 65.6 23.1
Luge 22.9 1.72 68.7 23.3
Short-Track Skating 23.6 1.66 57.2 20.8
Skeleton 27.2 1.67 61.8 22.1
Ski Jumping 21.4 1.65 53.0 19.6
Snowboarding 24.9 1.67 60.7 21.8
Speedskating 25.8 1.69 62.5 21.8

The Database

The original data was sourced from the official Olympic Games website Sochi2014.com. There were 2867 names, from 88 countries and representing 15 sports. Here is an excel database with all the data. The data supplied was name, country, sport, sex, height, weight, age. I also calculated BMI. Height was in centimeters, weight in kilograms (to the nearest kg) and age in whole years. Not all data was complete - weight data is unavailable for figure skaters and available for only a few curlers, and also note that women don't participate in Nordic Combined events.



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