Conventional wisdom holds that men run 10–12% faster than women regardless of the distance raced. But new research published in the Journal of Applied Physiology suggests that the performance gap narrows at shorter sprint distances.
Speed over short distances is determined by different factors – specifically, the magnitude of the ground forces athletes can apply in relation to their body mass. Muscular force to body mass ratios are greater in smaller individuals.
PhD candidate Emily McClelland, working with Peter Weyand, the Director of SMU’s Locomotor Performance Lab, quantified sex performance differences using data from sanctioned international athletic competitions such as the Olympics and World Championships. An accomplished athlete, McClelland has always had a natural interest in the scientific basis of human performance. The researchers hypothesised that these data would reveal smaller male-female performance differences at shorter distances.
The understanding of comparative strength, speed and endurance capabilities of male and female athletes has been a contentious issue for modern sport. Yet, prior to the new SMU study, quantitative understanding of sex performance differences for short sprint events had received little attention. McClelland’s background, male-female differences in force/mass capabilities, and existing data trends led her to hypothesise that sex differences in sprint running performance might be relatively small and increase with distance.
Her analysis of race data from sanctioned international competitions between 2003 and 2018 supported her initial hypothesis. These data revealed that the difference between male and female performance time increased with event distance from 8.6% to 11% from shortest to longest sprint events (60 to 400m). Additionally, within-race analysis of each 10-meter segment of the 100m event revealed a more pronounced pattern across distance: sex differences rose from 5.6% for the first segment to 14.2% in the last segment.
Why then are women potentially less disadvantaged versus men at shorter sprint distances?
Unlike other running species like horses and dogs, there is significant variation in body size between human males and females. Holding all other factors equal, body size differences result in muscular force to body mass ratios that are greater in relatively smaller individuals. Since sprinting velocities are directly dependent on the mass-specific forces runners can apply during the foot-to-ground contact phase of the stride, greater force/mass ratios of smaller individuals provide a theoretical relative advantage. A female runner’s shorter legs may confer the advantage of more steps and pushing cycles per unit time during the acceleration phase of a race. These factors offset male advantages (longer legs and greater muscularity) that become more influential over longer distances.
Source: Southern Methodist University
