The global youth sports landscape continues to exhibit pronounced growth providing increasing and exciting opportunities for youth athletes to compete on the world’s sports stage. Likewise, there is a parallel growing concern whether the existing minimum age eligibility requirements (AERs) across the International Federations for youth participation in the Olympic Games are appropriate. For those sport disciplines that have AERs, the current age thresholds are largely variable and not fully scientifically informed, and the limited research and supporting evidence relied on are notably complicated by the distinctively vulnerable age range of concern. Adolescence is inherently dynamic and non-linear with asynchronous development of numerous physical, physiological, psychological and social attributes within and between individuals. Accordingly, each athlete’s personal development profile uniquely affects their own athletic development and corresponding performance and risk in sport. Whereas an apt discipline-specific or overall AER is arguably warranted, precisely where those respective limits should be sensibly established cannot be easily defined. What is more, an AER alone (although convenient) would not be sufficient in enabling …

中文翻译：

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开启奥林匹克之旅——为精英级青年运动员呈现当代范式


全球青少年体育格局继续呈现显着增长，为青少年运动员在世界体育舞台上竞争提供了越来越多的令人兴奋的机会。同样，人们越来越担心国际单项体育联合会现有的青少年参加奥运会的最低年龄资格要求（AER）是否合适。对于那些有 AER 的体育学科来说，当前的年龄阈值变化很大，而且没有完全科学依据，而且所依赖的有限研究和支持证据由于特别脆弱的年龄范围而变得更加复杂。青春期本质上是动态和非线性的，个体内部和个体之间的许多身体、生理、心理和社会属性的异步发展。因此，每个运动员的个人发展概况都会独特地影响他们自己的运动发展以及相应的运动表现和风险。虽然适当的特定学科或整体 AER 可以说是必要的，但应该在何处明智地建立这些各自的限制却很难轻易定义。更重要的是，单独的 AER（尽管方便）不足以实现……