Why many Olympic athletes have early birthdays

[rangerrebew]

Why many Olympic athletes have early birthdays
Older kids in any year tend to be picked first for teams, giving them edge in training and competing
Bethany Brookshire
Feb 20, 2018 — 6:45 am EST
 

In a curious coincidence, two members of the U.S. men’s Olympic alpine ski team will celebrate their birthdays during the Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Another five of them will be lighting birthday candles in the two months surrounding the event.

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/why-many-olympic-athletes-have-early-birthdays
This could be random chance. Or not. The way that coaches pick teams when kids are very young could give an advantage to those born at a certain time of year. Slightly older kids will be just a bit bigger than younger teammates born the same year. In many sports, that difference is a bonus. But it means coaches might tend to leave younger kids on the bench.

[Suppressed]

Calendars and arbitrary cutoffs are odd.

A baby born in LA at 11 pm Pacific Time is legally older than a baby that popped out an hour earlier in NY, at 1 am Eastern Time on Jan 1 of the following year.