Peak performance: Participating in intergroup competitions facilitates extraordinary performance

This study examines peak performance by focusing on intergroup competitions. It is hypothesized that athletes would show their best ever performance in intergroup competitions more often than in interindividual competitions due to effort gains evoked by performing in a team. Using archival data, the performance of swimmers is analyzed because swimming offers highly standardized competitions and thus allows comparability of the performances in intergroup (or relay) and interindividual competitions. However, to draw clear conclusions, it is necessary to consider a possible relay start benefit. Based on unrelated video footage ( N = 80 swimmers) this benefit was estimated. To test the hypothesis, the N = 100 fastest 100 m individual freestyle performances (of the 50 fastest male and 50 fastest female swimmers starting at Olympic Games and World Championships) from the years 2000 to 2019 were compared to the fastest relay split times from 4 × 100 m freestyle races of the same swimmers. The results showed that significantly more swimmers than would be expected by chance ( n = 68, n = 36 females) had their best ever performance in a relay rather than in an individual race. Importantly, this result holds (for n = 65, n = 35 females) when controlling for a possible relay start benefit. Thus, most swimmers show their all-time peak performance in intergroup competitions by outperforming their best ever achieved times from individual competitions.