Anonymous dataset: Maturity of South African and German adolescents in schools, football academies and athletics programmes

Data describe biological maturity estimates from an ultrasound device with 716 participants. The study dataset was extracted from the larger South African Adolescent Athlete Database project.</p><p dir="ltr"><u>Article Description:</u></p><p dir="ltr">Differences in maturity status between athletes may affect selection to development programmes.

Data supporting this are limited for low- and middle-income countries. This exploratory study aimed to describe the maturity by country, sport and position/event, using data from a convenience sample of South African and German adolescents selected to competitive football (soccer) and athletics (track and field) programmes, and school learners from the same geographical area. We included skeletal age estimates from BAUSport ultrasound assessments of 233 girls (age 10–15 years) and 483 boys (age 10–17 years).