Confirmation on Qui-Gon Jinn's Prime

Over the years, lots of people have wondered whether Qui-Gon Jinn as of his appearance in The Phantom Menace was past his prime or not because The Phantom Menace Novelisation and a few other sources put a lot of emphasis on TPM Qui-Gon physically declining. It turns out that the official Star Wars website tells us about Qui-Gon's prime:

"Jedi Master Jinn possesses strong features and a piercing gaze. Powerfully built and speaking in a grave and determined voice, he has a very intimidating presence. He wears his long hair tied back so as not to obstruct his peripheral vision. Although a little past his prime, he remains a powerful warrior and a very active Jedi Knight." -- StarWars.com: Qui-Gon Jinn (Archived)

The source says that as of TPM, Qui-Gon is "a little past his prime" but "remains a powerful warrior and a very active Jedi Knight" i.e. TPM Qui-Gon is a very formidable, but he is a post-prime version of Qui-Gon in combat prowess by a tiny margin. So the Qui-Gon that we see in TPM is only slightly inferior to his prime self.

@the_buddha_@lord_tenebrous@mygod000@alextheboss@richard96

@yousufkhan1212: Yeah AP mentioned this in his post for Kun in the Top 15 thread. Not too surprising, it’s definitely implied. He’s also “slowed by age” per other quotes.

@the_buddha_: Where and how long ago?

Explicit confirmation is always handy.

@yousufkhan1212: Recently, under his ADAs scaling section.

Intriguing. I always assumed that he had only declined physically, but continued improving in power and skill. Oh well.

Since I hold TPM Qui-Gon as just below TPM Maul, I might have to consider the possibility that they are equals during their respective peaks.

@lord_tenebrous: Maul's victory over Qui-Gon, IMO, is an example of youth vs experience in SW. TPM Jinn was only slightly past his prime, so prime Jinn would give TPM Maul a slightly better fight, but would still lose. In lightsaber combat, Maul has been confirmed as superior by a total of 4 sources (5 if you interpret TPM novel's "more than equal in weapons training" as more than equal in lightsaber skill). Physically speaking, TPM Jinn and TPM Maul weren't even comparable because Maul was 22 years old and Jinn was 60 years old, which is reinforced by TCSWE, that says that Jinn couldn't physically compete with Maul, he was able to withstand Maul's Juyo assault on Tatooine, but this can be boiled down to Jinn being forced to use up more of his own Force reserves than Maul had to use his because Maul was a 22 year old physical powerhouse who didn't need to rely on his Force reserves as much. If they had an unarmed fight, TPM Maul would probably beat the living snot out of TPM Jinn.

IMO and from my own research Qui-Gon would be around if not a little below the B-Team(minus Windu) from ROTS