RESEARCH ARTICLE A novel application of PageRank and user preference algorithms for assessing the relative performance of track athletes in competition Clive B. Beggs1*, Simon J. Shepherd2, Stacey Emmonds1, Ben Jones1 1 Institute for Sport, Physical Activity and Leisure, Carnegie Faculty, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, West a1111111111 Yorkshire, United Kingdom, 2 Medical Biophysics Laboratory, University of Bradford, Bradford, United a1111111111 Kingdom a1111111111 a1111111111 *
[email protected] a1111111111 Abstract Ranking enables coaches, sporting authorities, and pundits to determine the relative perfor- OPEN ACCESS mance of individual athletes and teams in comparison to their peers. While ranking is rela- Citation: Beggs CB, Shepherd SJ, Emmonds S, tively straightforward in sports that employ traditional leagues, it is more difficult in sports Jones B (2017) A novel application of PageRank where competition is fragmented (e.g. athletics, boxing, etc.), with not all competitors com- and user preference algorithms for assessing the peting against each other. In such situations, complex points systems are often employed to relative performance of track athletes in competition. PLoS ONE 12(6): e0178458. https:// rank athletes. However, these systems have the inherent weakness that they frequently rely doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178458 on subjective assessments in order to gauge the calibre of the competitors involved. Here Editor: Wei-Xing Zhou, East China University of we show how two Internet derived algorithms, the PageRank (PR) and user preference Science and Technology, CHINA (UP) algorithms, when utilised with a simple `who beat who' matrix, can be used to accu- Received: December 9, 2016 rately rank track athletes, avoiding the need for subjective assessment.