Can a woman beat a man in swimming?

This whole topic got me thinking about women in endurance sports. Something I find a little strange is how little you hear about women's cycling. The Tour de France is big news these days, but I hear nothing about any of the women's events. Maybe we just need a "female Lance Armstrong" to emerge? It's also obvious that women aren't quite there yet in terms of challenging the elite men or else we'd be seeing women on some of the the Tour teams.

OK…I’m going to jump in here. I’m probably going to piss off some women and a few men, but it’s pretty clear than women are not going to “catch men and pass them” when it comes to athletic events that rely on muscle. The bottom line is that we (women) do not carry as much muscle as men. Now there are a few women who will beat most men in many events. Exceptional training and fairly high levels of testosterone (for a woman) will pay off. But at the elite level, I believe that men’s ability to lay on muscle will prevail. Lengthy endurance events may be another story. There seems to be some advantage to having extra fat stores, but the jury is still out on this issue. I do want to stress that this does not mean that men are superior to women. Heck, 21 second versus 23 second does not mean much in the scheme of things. Unless you’re a sprinter!!! :D

I know it is not PC, but let's get real. There are not enough women to make these sports as competitive as the men's version WNBA? Boring and dull. I would much rather watch Ben Wallace block a shot for the Pistons. LPGA? Yea right. There is the 1 teen phenom (the female version of Tiger) but honestly, it just is not the same as the fist punching Tiger. Softball? It creeps me out watching. Football? Ahhh, 'nuff said. When the Olympics come around every 4 years, it is really exciting because we get to see elite women athletes in sporting events where it is better to watch women or doesn't matter. What we really need is for ABC to bring back Wide World of Sports. Then we would be able to follow the women athletes. Bottom line - there is no money in women's athletics. It is sad but true. When's the last time you got to see Nebraska's Women's Volleyball Team. They are awesome and have dominated the sport for several years.

My wife figure skates, so she really follows the competitions. In a figure skating event today (ISU Grand Prix, so comparable to the World Cup series in swimming, i.e. the top level competitors are involved) a female Japanese skater landed two triple axels in her program and only a couple of the male competitors even landed one.

Originally posted by MichiganHusker I know it is not PC, but let's get real. There are not enough women to make these sports as competitive as the men's version... ...Bottom line - there is no money in women's athletics. Great quote, and unfortunately you are right on most counts. A few sports I would throw out to you that I think are more interesting in Women's rather than men's: Tennis Gymnastics (If they are older than 16, the young ones "Creep me out" also) Figure Skating Diving (Could be a toss up here) I'm sure there are a few others that I am forgetting right now. But I guess you might say the more "Finesse" sports are better spectated with women rather than men. I know tennis is not "Finesse", but men's tennis is completely boring today compared to Pete vs. Andre or Ivan vs. Jimmy. P.S. Women are much more fun to watch in other "sports" but I don't even want to mention those here, totally unappropriate! :D

I totally agree that there are some sports where it is just better to watch women. I cannot stand men's gymnastics. It creeps me out just as much as women's softball. Women's figure skating is by far better then men's as far as enjoyment and beauty. It's just that why do the feminists always insist that whatever men can do, women can too? I just think some sports are better left to men and some other sports are better left to the women. Syncro Swimming is another example. Can't imagine ever wanting to see men compete.

Originally posted by MichiganHusker Syncro Swimming is another example. Can't imagine ever wanting to see men compete. Do any of you ever remember the old SNL skit with Martin Short and Harry Shearer trying to the the first Men's Synchro Team? Absolutely hilarious! I completely agree with the question of people trying to make things equal. I don't for the life of me understand why we have "evolved" to think men and women are alike. We are different! One is not bettter than the other, we just have different strengths and weaknesses. I know women over history make less, don't advance as easy as men, etc. and things need to be corrected somhow so this does not continue to happen (which I believe has changed immensly in the past 20 years). But why do men's sports have to suffer (i.e. Title IX) to make things "equal"?

When I was a Flight Attendant, I had a layover in Philadelphia. We used to stay in this Howard Johnson's that had a swimming pool in the basement of the hotel. No windows and not exactly easy access. Anyway, a fellow Flight Attendant friend and I decided to go swimming. No one else was in the pool and due to its location, we didn't think anyone was watching so we started "re-enacting" the Howard Short/Harry Shearer synchro act as well as sort of making up our own funny little water ballerina moves. Nothing pornographic or anything, just good clean fun. Well, little did we know that the entire front desk was watching us on the security cameras. Apparently we were so funny to watch that just about every employee in the area (all men) were watching us. When we came up from the pool, we had to walk by the front desk and they all lifted up "scoring cards" 10, 9.5, 6.5, etc. It was really funny since we had absolutely no idea anyone was watching. Needless to say, I became quite infamous at that Hotel during the rest of my gig as a Flight Attendant. :p

Originally posted by MichiganHusker I just think some sports are better left to men and some other sports are better left to the women. Hmmmm....have to disagree here. I DO believe in equal access, I just think it is unrealistic to think that performance will be equal at the top, for the reasons I suggested earlier. If we are going to leave some sports to men and some other sports to women, who gets to decide? What if the "deciders" say that women swimmers "creep" them out......no more swimming for women?

What about guys playing on women's fieldhockey or volleyball teams. Peole get into such a ruf about it but many girls I know don't want to be athiletes.