PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF LUNG VOLUMES IN YOUNG GIRL SWIMMERS

INTRODUCTION In competitive swimming for women top results are often achieved by girls no more than 15-16 years of age. In a cross sectional study of the functional dimensions of 30 girl swimmers from 1216 years, it was found than many girls in this young age group could be trained to an exceptionally high functional capacity, which was more related to the degree of training than to age and body size ( / ) . These were the final results of several years of hard training, and the possible contribution of constitutional factors to the results could not be excluded. In order to further elucidate the pattern of development of functional dimensions during hard physical training, a longitudinal study of a group of young girls at the beginning of their swim training was started in 1963. Lung volumes, heart volume, total hemoglobin, blood volume and maximal oxygen uptake were measured at regular intervals up to the age of 16. The study is still in progress. Preliminary lung volume results during training will be presented here.