An interesting study was recently published by the NATONAL REVIEW that suggests the top female athletes in their respective sport are basically the equivalent of the best 14 or 15-year old boy in theirs. While this may seem like a stretch, or even be considered controversial, it’s really quite hard to argue with the facts.
(High School boys are unimpressed.)
The REVIEWS Todd Johnson crunches the numbers of each world record set by women over the past 20 years in speed, strength, and endurance events. Then he goes on to compare them to the best times of pubescent boys in the same categories and concludes that, across the board, a 15-year old male has consistently better numbers than their elder female counterparts.
Allow Mr. Johnson to explain:
One of my initial findings was jarring: the women’s Olympic record in the 100 meters, set in 1988 by superstar Florence Griffith-Joyner, is virtually identical to the U.S. record for 14-year-old boys — also set in 1988, by the less heralded Curtis Johnson. The winning time of 2008 women’s gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser? Well over a tenth of a second slower than Johnson’s.
These comparisons mainly focus on individual sports, but contain examples from team sports as well,
Direct competition between women and boys tends to confirm the gap: the women’s Olympic hockey team has lost to boys’ high school junior-varsity teams; the women’s Olympic soccer team has lost to club teams of 15-year-old boys, the Colorado Silver Bullets professional baseball team has lost to American Legion squads — the list goes on and on.
And when Todd laid out his study to Laura Pappano of Wellesley College, who has written books trying to disprove theories like this, her answer seemed a little… well, sexist, “Women are told around that time that they are athletically inferior to men and that they should start acting like ladies. That’s why we see the boys making such stunning gains at that age and the girls begin to suffer.”
You hear that, women? Quit acting like ladies and start training!
3:21 pm on August 23rd, 2008
I don’t disagree with your statistics but things are relative when comparing athletes no matter what sex they are. I’ve seen average girls athletes beat average male athletes in multiple sports. I think a lot of it is the shear difference in the number of male athletes compared to females. More males compete than females thus over time better times for males.
4:42 pm on August 23rd, 2008
Victor, please stop trying to compare speculation to empirical evidence and pick up a physiology textbook. I don’t know what benchmark you use to discern “average” athletes to other skill levels, but until females start secreting testosterone, and reach the same genetic and musculoskeletal potential as males, they won’t even be close to matching men.
Possible underlying cause: Victor, were beat in a sport by a female at a young age and have had perpetually negative residual affects up until now in your life?