Efeito da idade relativa em atletas olímpicos de esportes de combate.

Relative age effect (RAE) refers to the consequences of the chronological age difference between individuals who are grouped in the same age category. The objective was to investigate the presence of RAE in Olympic combat sports athletes. The birth date of 1,163 boxing, judo, wrestling and taekwondo athletes competing at 2012 Olympic Games and 1,148 athletes at 2016 Olympic Games was examined. The RAE was examined for the distribution of quartiles and births of athletes from each modality, by sex and edition of the Olympic Games, through the Chi-Square test (X²), adopting significance level of 5%. It was verified the existence of the RAE in female judo, with a higher representation of athletes born in the first semester (X² = 7.503; p = 0.01). On the other hand, there was an inverse RAE in women's boxing, with a higher representation of athletes born in the second semester (X² = 3.959; p = 0.05) and in male taekwondo in 2016, in which there was a greater representation of athletes born in the 3rd quartile (X² = 8.292; p = 0.04). It is concluded that the RAE is not consistently found in Olympic combat sports athletes, varying according to sex, modality and edition of the Olympic Games, and an inverse RAE can still be observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]