UK Sport could not say if a disproportionate majority of the 1,300 athletes across 47 sports it funds were born in November and October. Natalie Dunman, its head of performance, said that while the differences highlighted in the new findings were borne out by teenagers competing in junior-level competitions, they had disappeared by the time athletes were taking part in adult competitions. She said: “With elite, senior athletes, there are many factors that make a champion and our work hasn’t uncovered anything to suggest that month of birth is one of the key ingredients.”
What does Natalie Dunman note is a limitation to the study?
It did not investigate if the differences in teenagers persisted to adulthood The teenagers in the study did not take part in junior-level competitions It examined too many unimportant factors in determining what makes a champion athlete It had too small a sample size