Anthropometric measurements are important aspects in the early identification of talented swimmers (Rejman et al., 2018). Both anthropometrics and body composition changes may affect swimming performance, including the longitudinal variations during maturational growth (Oliveira et al., 2021; Zacca et al., 2019). Hence, the anthropometric assessment plays an important role in the swimming area (Alves et al., 2022). Based on the sport or physical activity practiced, the somatotypes defined differs for each athlete (Rakoviæ et al., 2015). In young swimmers, the mesomorph has been identified as the most common somatotype (46.1%), followed by the ecto-mesomorph (30.8%) and the meso-ectomorph (23.1%) (Stankoviæ et al. 2018). Understanding that training programs of young swimmers are usually planned to achieve two or three performance peaks over a 10-11 months season (Morais et al., 2018), which are characterized by a temporary break known as detraining (Mujika & Padilla, 2000), the anthropometric changes may occur also as a process of training. The detraining period after a season, may lead to the partial or total loss of training, inducing anatomical, physiological and performance adaptations (Mujika & Padilla, 2000; Ruiz-Navarro et al., 2022). These detraining periods are influenced by the duration of training break, obtaining different adaptations in shorter or longer breaks than four weeks (Mujika & Padilla, 2000). For high-level swimmers, four weeks of season break are the typical detraining period (Mujika & Padilla, 2000), while age-group swimmers generally recover 4-6 weeks, depending of each national swimming calendar (Zacca et al., 2019). During the seasons` break, anthropometric changes are also influenced by the level of physical activity performed (Zacca et al., 2019), which should be considered to understand its possible effects. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to analyse the effects of five weeks of training cessation on anthropometric measurements and its influence on swimming performance.
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