The Commonwealth Games are currently under way in Australia, but this has bugged me since the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Competitive Olympic and other divers tend to have very big thighs. I have a working knowledge about a number of sports (including swimming), but I am totally ignorant about diving, so I would welcome some education.
What advantage is gained by competitive divers having large thighs, to the extent that they appear ubiquitous?
I may be wrong, so please feel free to point that out.
They use them to jump higher.
I’ll certainly put more credence to someone with “diver” in their username, but I agree. I used to dive in high school and strong legs are key to getting the height needed to perform the most difficult dives. However they’re not substantially bigger than any athletes thighs, as opposed to speed skaters for example who have some of the biggest thighs of any athletes.
They get strong from climbing the ladder so often.
That’s a good part of why Eric Heiden, after winning 5 skating gold medals in the 1980 Olympics, became a professional cyclists.
Pointe dancers have big thighs, it’s helpful in balance and spring. Divers need both. The ladder climb would make big calves.
I would think that any sport that requires an explosive push from the legs will lead to large thighs. For divers, most of their spins and twists are completed before they come back down to the height of the platform (or springboard). For cyclists, I think only sprinters would have big thighs. For distance cyclists, like those that compete for the Tour de France, smaller thighs (and bodies in general) are needed. This is similar to the body differences between distance runners and short distance sprinters.
There are two types of muscle fibers: slow-twitch for endurance, and fast-twitch for power. Fast-twitch muscle fiber has greater mass, and therefore looks bigger, as can be seen by comparing the physiques of a sprinter and a marathon runner. A diver is not going to need much endurance musculature in the legs, but will need a lot of explosive power in order to jump higher. Therefore their leg muscles will be predominantly fast-twitch, and thus have greater mass than a lot of other athletes, who might have different needs regarding power vs endurance.
That all makes sense. Thanks everyone.