What's the Goldilocks Height?

Here we see Askel Svindal one of the tallest current World Cup Racers next to Marcel Hirsher one of the smallest and Ted Ligety who is average. They are all talented racers even with varying heights.

Growing up I always wanted to believe that with hard work anything is possible.  I believe that much less as I get older. Unfortunately as much as we want to believe anything is possible, especially in the world of sports, the fact remains that some people are limited. But the question I have is what genetic factors make you good at ski racing?

I recently read The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Performance by David Epstein. While many books look to disprove the role of genetics in elite performance Epstein sought to prove it. It is an excellent read and I highly recommend it.  While Epstein never spoke about ski racers he did find some startling evidence of the influence of genetics in sports. This idea intrigued me. I had never heard about any studies in ski racing, although a fellow athlete once told me that femur length is critical to ski racing success. I don’t know about that but I wanted to know more about what genetic traits affected ski racing success.

One genetic trait has been studied in length with regard to athletic success: height. In Ericsson’s study he mentions height and cites a study of Olympic athletes at the Montreal games and says that while different heights are an obvious advantage in certain sports (ie basketball and gymnastics) the average height of athletes at the Montreal games was the same as that of a control group of students. This implies that while people may not be cut out for particular sports there should always be a sport that will favor their height.

Unfortunately I don’t know that this is really the case any more. Over time the height of athletes in most sports has trended toward the extremes. In the first modern Olympics it was believed that the average sized man was the right size for all athletic endeavors, not too tall, not too short, not too muscle bound or lean. Since that first Olympics much has changed. Gymnasts have gotten smaller, basketball players taller. But what about ski racers? Ted Ligety is 5’11’’ and Anna Fenninger 5’5’’ -- fairly average heights. So does being tall give racers an advantage?

This led me to make an extensive search of the internet. I compiled the height of as many Olympic medalists in ski racing as possible. Some, especially those of early ski racers, were unavailable but I did find enough that I could compile some usable data. The results led to some interesting answers and even more questions.

The average height for a male Olympic medalist in ski racing is (can I get a drum roll please?) about 181cm equivalent to about 5’ 11’’. While this is slightly higher than the U.S. national average (176), it is closer to Central Europe’s average male height. The shorter countries in Europe run around 176 and the taller 180 or 181.  The shortest male medalist is Heini Hemmi who won gold in the ’76 games in GS. There aren’t many close to him with American Andrew Weibrecht coming in as the shortest current medalist (and one of the shortest all time) at 168cm (5’6’’). The tallest medalist is Michael Walchofer at a towering 192cm or 6’4’’. Almost half of male medalists lie between 178 and 183cm.

Now for the ladies. Interestingly it seems that while male heights have stayed fairly steady throughout the sport’s history female height has increased somewhat over time with an average of about 168cm or 5’6’’. Again this is slightly higher than average but still well within the range of a normal person. The shortest ever was Barbara Cochran at 155cm and the tallest was the well-known Maria Höfl-Riesch at 180cm. More than half of female medalists lie within 165 and 172cm. Women’s ski racing also has a broader range of heights than men with racers from Tessa Worley to Lindsey Vonn doing well.

Does this mean that anyone can be a great ski racer? Well maybe, maybe not. Ski racing definitely discriminates against the lower third of the height spectrum with fewer and fewer racers at those heights. I think that one critical piece of being a good ski racer is having weight to carry you down the hill. The shorter athletes on the circuit now (like Weibrecht and Gut) have fit as much muscle weight onto their smaller frames as possible.  Unfortunately accurate weight information on ski racers is not available (since the weight information that exists is self-reported and in many cases not credible).

Another interesting finding was the comparison between events. Interestingly on both the men and the women’s side GS was the shortest event but all events stayed roughly around the same number. I don’t think the difference was significant. There isn’t really a different ideal height for speed vs. tech, even though figures like Svindal and Miller might lead you to believe otherwise.

There are certainly issues with being too tall or short in ski racing. Unlike most sports that have trended toward the extremes ski racing trends just above average height with fewer and fewer outliers as time progresses. So most people can be ski racers assuming they can add muscle weight to their frame, but we are not without our own form of genetic discrimination even in the realms of height.