# From the European Youth Olympics Festival to professional sport. The level of athlete dropout – a longitudinal cohort study

## TL;DR

This study tracks young athletes from the European Youth Olympic Festival to see how many drop out of sports by adulthood, finding that individual sports and birth timing affect dropout rates.

## Contribution

The study provides new insights into youth sports dropout patterns in Hungary, particularly the influence of sport type and relative age.

## Key findings

- Higher dropout rates were observed in individual sports compared to team sports.
- Athletes born in the second relative age quartile had slightly higher dropout rates in individual sports.
- Those born in the third relative age quartile had slightly lower dropout rates in individual sports.

## Abstract

Globally, the dropout rate among young athletes, which is influenced by a range of complex and interconnected factors, tends to rise significantly when adolescence starts.

The present retrospective cohort study aimed to explore the characteristics and extent of dropout in youth sports in Hungary.

We analysed the status of 409 athletes who participated in the summer editions of the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) between 2009 and 2019, assessing their athletic status 5 years later. Specifically, we examined the associations between dropout rates and factors such as gender, types of sport and relative age quartiles.

Our findings reveal that dropout rates were higher in individual sports compared to team sports. Additionally, within individual sports, athletes born in the second age quartile had a slightly higher dropout rate, while those born in the third quartile experienced a slightly lower rate compared to the other quartiles.

These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of the factors influencing dropout in youth sports.