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JOURNAL
OF
SPORTS SCIENCE &
MEDICINE
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Research
article
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WOMEN AND MEN IN SPORT PERFORMANCE: THE GENDER GAP HAS NOT EVOLVED SINCE 1983 |
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Valérie Thibault1  ,
Marion Guillaume2, Geoffroy Berthelot1, Nour El Helou1,
Karine Schaal1, Laurent Quinquis1, Hala Nassif1,
Muriel Tafflet1,3, Sylvie Escolano1,3, Olivier Hermine2,4
and Jean-François. Toussaint1,2,5 |
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1IRMES, INSEP, Paris, France, 2Université Paris-Descartes, Paris, France, 3INSERM U970, Centre de Recherche Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, 4Service Hématologie, Hôpital Necker and CNRS UMR, Paris, France, 5CIMS, Hôtel-Dieu, Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France |
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© Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2010) 9, 214 - 223 |
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| ABSTRACT | |||
| Sex is a major factor influencing best performances and world
records. Here the evolution of the difference between men and women's best
performances is characterized through the analysis of 82 quantifiable events
since the beginning of the Olympic era. For each event in swimming, athletics,
track cycling, weightlifting and speed skating the gender gap is fitted
to compare male and female records. It is also studied through the best
performance of the top 10 performers in each gender for swimming and athletics.
A stabilization of the gender gap in world records is observed after 1983,
at a mean difference of 10.0% ± 2.94 between men and women for all events.
The gender gap ranges from 5.5% (800-m freestyle, swimming) to 18.8% (long
jump). The mean gap is 10.7% for running performances, 17.5% for jumps,
8.9% for swimming races, 7.0% for speed skating and 8.7% in cycling. The
top ten performers' analysis reveals a similar gender gap trend with a stabilization
in 1982 at 11.7%, despite the large growth in participation of women from
eastern and western countries, that coincided with later- published evidence
of state-institutionalized or individual doping. These results suggest that
women will not run, jump, swim or ride as fast as men.
Key words: World records, best performances, gender difference, elite sport. |
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