Seems to have held very steady through out the decades. Women seem to always be about .90 time wise of the men's performance. Some interesting science why that always may be the case.
www.theatlantic.com/.../
It's a shame that this study only goes as far as marathon distances. At ultra distances, the gender (im)balance is different. Exhibit A: en.wikipedia.org/.../Pam_Reed
Well, she won the 2003 Badwater Ultra, but she doesn't have the overall record. The men's record is nearly 5 hours faster than hers, which comes out to a .824 ratio...not far off the widest margin from Hammerman's analysis of 82 events for 6 sports, which was .84. So it would appear that even extreme distances it holds true.
Badwater Ultra records:
20-29 M v F performance ratio: .772
30-39 M v F performance ratio: .902
40-49 M v F performance ratio: .824
She won the Badwater Ultra because she was the best person who went. It's not like the Olympics where you can expect the best in the world are going to attend every time.
It's a shame that this study only goes as far as marathon distances. At ultra distances, the gender (im)balance is different. Exhibit A: en.wikipedia.org/.../Pam_Reed
Well, she won the 2003 Badwater Ultra, but she doesn't have the overall record. The men's record is nearly 5 hours faster than hers, which comes out to a .824 ratio...not far off the widest margin from Hammerman's analysis of 82 events for 6 sports, which was .84. So it would appear that even extreme distances it holds true.
Badwater Ultra records:
20-29 M v F performance ratio: .772
30-39 M v F performance ratio: .902
40-49 M v F performance ratio: .824
She won the Badwater Ultra because she was the best person who went. It's not like the Olympics where you can expect the best in the world are going to attend every time.
