See also page 359

This paper contributes some new information which builds on previous published work toward the development of an athlete model for sport climbing performance. The study includes assessment of variables that have not been previously reported and uses a principal components analysis procedure to present a different perspective of analysis. The results may have limited application, however, except to discriminate between climbers of a wide range of ability. The concept of diversity within subjects for this type of study is well illustrated in an article by Sjodin and Svedenhag,¹ in which the authors illustrate that Vo₂ max correlates well with mean marathon running velocity for runners with velocities ranging from 3.0 to 5.4 m/s (r = 0.78). However, the correlation suffers when the sample is reduced to only “fast” runners with velocities between 4.65 and 5.40 m/s (r = 0.01). Thus the application of interpretations may be limited to samples of diverse climbing ability. Still, this work has identified possible factors that may now be studied to determine how training induced changes are reflected in changes in performance.