PEDIATRICS Vol. 92 No. 4 October 1993, pp. 617
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EFFECTS OF EARLY INTENSIVE SPORTS TRAINING

J. F. L. MD

It has been suggested that the intensive training of athletes from a young age could be bad for the developing body—a good reason not to screen for potential champions too young. However, that idea has been firmly repudiated by one of the biggest studies of young athletes ever carried out. In the study, known as the Training of Young Athletes (TOYA), a sample of 453 British children aged between 8 and 12, both athletes and non-athletes, were followed for five years to measure the effects of sport on the developing body.

. . ."There is no evidence that athletic activity affects physical development," says Nicola Muffulli, an orthopaedic surgeon who ran and analysed the F1 million programme, funded by the Sports Council. "This contradicts some predictions from the US," he adds. American scientists had quoted studies of forced exercise by laboratory animals to suggest that children could be injured more easily. "But the outcome of our study clearly means that elite sports participation does not mean you run a higher risk of being injured," says Muffulli.