This analysis is based on Olympic sports data ranging from 1896 to 2016. With over 66 different sport disciplines.
The audience of this report are Lithuanian basketball strategist, who are interested in knowing, if Lithuanian national basketball team is becoming “older”, “lower” and “older”? As some players return every 4 years to play again for their country. They want to know, if the competitiveness of the national team might decrease due to players physique.
I have raised following hypotheses:
Exploratory data analysis can be found in my GitHub repository
The Box plot diagram shows that the median has slightly increased over time, while the variation has decreased when comparing to 1996-2004 era.
Summary statistics table:
| Summary statistics | |||
| Lithuanian Basketball players | |||
| Year | avg_height | sd_height | median_height |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 200.7 | 8.7 | 198.0 |
| 1996 | 201.7 | 11.1 | 201.0 |
| 2000 | 200.8 | 7.9 | 201.0 |
| 2004 | 201.3 | 8.7 | 199.5 |
| 2008 | 201.7 | 7.3 | 199.5 |
| 2012 | 200.3 | 6.4 | 199.5 |
| 2016 | 202.8 | 7.0 | 201.5 |
This data may suggest, that the hypothesis will be rejected.
The Boxplot diagram shows that the median weight has slightly increased over time, while the variation has remain approximately the same over time.
Summary statistics table:
| Summary statistics | |||
| Lithuanian Basketball players | |||
| Year | avg_weight | sd_weight | median_weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 100.4 | 11.5 | 95.0 |
| 1996 | 100.6 | 12.9 | 96.0 |
| 2000 | 98.6 | 12.7 | 98.5 |
| 2004 | 100.2 | 9.8 | 97.5 |
| 2008 | 100.5 | 9.9 | 99.0 |
| 2012 | 99.4 | 12.2 | 99.0 |
| 2016 | 100.8 | 12.5 | 100.5 |
This data may suggest, that the hypothesis will be confirmed
The Box plot diagram shows that in 1922 there was the largest variation in data, then in 1996 the median age dropped and every games past that more or less the same players returned to Olympics, the median age increased. In 2016, although completely different players were playing, the median variation appears to be very similar to 1996
| Summary statistics | |||
| Lithuanian Basketball players | |||
| Year | avg_weight | sd_weight | median_weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 100.4 | 11.5 | 95.0 |
| 1996 | 100.6 | 12.9 | 96.0 |
| 2000 | 98.6 | 12.7 | 98.5 |
| 2004 | 100.2 | 9.8 | 97.5 |
| 2008 | 100.5 | 9.9 | 99.0 |
| 2012 | 99.4 | 12.2 | 99.0 |
| 2016 | 100.8 | 12.5 | 100.5 |
Despite exploratory data analysis showing some relative increases in basketball players physique - none of it appears to be significant
| Lithuanian basketball players metrics 1992 vs 2016 | ||||
| student-t statiscis for height, weight, age | ||||
| variable | estimate1 | estimate2 | rel_change | p.value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age | 27.33 | 27.75 | 1.52% | 0.841 |
| Height | 200.67 | 202.75 | 1.04% | 0.523 |
| Weight | 100.42 | 100.75 | 0.33% | 0.946 |
Lithuanian basketball strategists can be calmed down, despite some players returning to play for their country, the national team does not become older, heavier and does not loose height. Thus competitiveness of national team will depend on skills and not on physique.