Women Outperforming Men in Sports: A Unique Edge
2 August 2024 By Johnber
NewsTogether
From ultrarunning to shooting, women are excelling in several sports, sometimes even outperforming men. Historical achievements like Penny Lee Dean's record-setting swim across the English Channel in 1978 highlight women's capability to excel in extreme conditions. Dean's tolerance for cold, aided by her fat distribution, played a crucial role in her success.
Physical and Mental Edge
Women can perform on par or better than men in various competitive events. The gap between elite female and male athletes' performances has plateaued at around an 8-12% difference favoring men. However, in ultra-endurance events, women tend to excel. Dean and other experts suggest that women's ability to withstand discomfort and maintain mental focus provides an advantage in long-distance swimming and ultrarunning.
Women's typically higher body fat percentage aids in regulating body temperature and floating, critical in cold water sports. In ultrarunning, women are better at pacing and utilizing body fat for energy, giving them an edge in races beyond 195 miles.
Shooting Sports
In shooting sports, women demonstrate equal, if not superior, performance to men. South Korean shooter Kim Yeji set a world record in the women's 25-meter pistol at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She emphasizes the importance of mental strength in shooting, a factor where women often excel. Despite men's physical advantages, women's better equilibrium control due to lower body mass and center of gravity balances performance in rifle events.
Challenges and Bias
Gender bias restricts women's participation in some sports, affecting performance comparisons. Unequal access to opportunities and societal stereotypes play significant roles. For example, no men participate in artistic swimming at the Paris Olympics, and women's participation in boxing remains limited in certain societies.
Biological and social factors influencing sports performance are complex. Testosterone levels, often linked to muscle size and competitiveness, show no clear linear relationship with performance. Elite male athletes sometimes have low testosterone levels, and women with hyperandrogenism do not perform at men's levels.
Mental Resilience
Women may recover faster after exercise due to lower muscle mass and greater flexibility. This recovery advantage, combined with mental resilience, aids in ultra-endurance sports. Dean's mental training with mantras like "the colder the water, the better" highlights the mental fortitude necessary for success.
Future of Women's Sports
The Paris Olympics are a milestone with equal numbers of female and male athletes, reflecting progress in inclusion. Yet, much of sports science remains male-centric. More research on women and non-binary athletes is crucial to understanding and enhancing their performance. Celebrating achievements in women's sports without constant comparison to men's can help embrace gender diversity in athletics.
As we move forward, understanding that sports performance exists on a spectrum can break down gender barriers, promoting inclusivity and celebrating women's unique strengths in various sports.
Keywords
- endurance: the ability to withstand hardship or adversity, especially the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity
- tolerate: to allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of something that one does not necessarily like or agree with without interference
- discomfort: slight pain or a feeling of unease
- performance: the act of performing a task or function
- competitiveness: the inclination to compete and strive for success
- stamina: the ability to sustain prolonged physical or mental effort
- equilibrium: a state of physical balance
- inclusion: the action or state of including or being included within a group or structure
- physiology: the branch of biology that deals with the normal functions of living organisms and their parts
- ultrarunning: a form of running that involves distances longer than a marathon
- advantage: a condition or circumstance that puts one in a favorable or superior position
- stereotype: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing
- resilience: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties
- regulation: a rule or directive made and maintained by an authority
- athlete: a person who is proficient in sports and other forms of physical exercise
- distribute: to divide and give out in shares
- social conditioning: the process of training individuals in a society to respond in a manner generally approved by the society and its institutions
- inclusion: the practice or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized
- psychology: the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context
- environment: the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates
- ultramarathon: a footrace longer than the traditional marathon length of 42.195 kilometers (26.219 miles)
- pacing: the speed at which someone or something moves or does something
- fatigue: extreme tiredness resulting from mental or physical exertion or illness
- insulation: material used to insulate something, especially a building
- mental adaptation: the process of adjusting to new conditions mentally
- mantra: a word or sound repeated to aid concentration in meditation
- thermoregulation: the process that allows the human body to maintain its core internal temperature
- muscle mass: the volume or bulk of muscle tissue in the body
- testosterone: a steroid hormone that stimulates development of male secondary sexual characteristics, produced mainly in the testes
- hyperandrogenism: a medical condition characterized by excessive levels of androgens (male hormones) in the body
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