The master athlete has been proposed as the ideal model of aging due to their participation in high intensity exercise. The intention of this study was to analyse the strength and body composition of veteran long-distance athletes in relation to age.

The participants were 43 athletes, 40 men (age: 41.2 ± 1.1 years) and 3 women (age: 44.3 ± 3.1 years), that were training at the time. Leg strength was analysed by means of countermovement jumps (CMJ), jumps in 30 s, manual dynamometry and different body composition parameters. We established two age groups (35-44 years and 45-54 years) as selective parameters.

There were no significant differences (P ≥.05) found in body composition based on age. In contrast, there were significant differences in relation with strength, which showed significant reductions (P <.05) in jump height, maximum speed, maximum power and concentric work in CMJ and reductions in average jump height and power in the jumps in 30 seconds in the older group.

The veteran athlete, in spite of age, evidences healthy parameters of body composition; nevertheless, high intensity training does not make it possible to maintain leg strength values throughout the aging process.