title: No correlation of anthropometry and race performance in ultra-endurance swimmers at a 12-hours-swim.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In swimmers, the effects of the anthropometric factors, upper extremity length, hand length and body height, on performance over 100 m have been shown, but no data exist about the influence of anthropometric factors on performance in ultra-endurance swimmers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twelve male Caucasian ultra-swimmers participated in our study at the 9th edition in 2007 of the 12-hours-swim in Zurich, Switzerland. We determined body mass, length of arms and legs, body height, circumferences of extremities, skeletal muscle mass and fat mass in order to correlate with the covered distance and to find an effect on race performance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 12 swimmers achieved an average distance of 29.4 +/- 5.1 km, varying from 22.8 km to 39.1 km during these 12 hours. There was no correlation between body mass, length of arms and legs, body height, circumferences of extremities, skeletal muscle mass and fat mass to race performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In these 12 male ultra-endurance swimmers no effect of the anthropometric parameters body mass, body height, BMI, circumferences of extremities, length of arms and legs, skeletal muscle mass and fat mass, on performance in a 12-hours-swim has been found.
authors.affiliation: Gesundheitszentrum St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland. beat.knechtle@hispeed.ch
authors.forename: Beat
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Knechtle
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Knechtle
authors.forename: Götz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kohler
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue; D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D001823:Body Composition / Q000502:physiology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010807:Physical Endurance / Q000502:physiology*; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology*