Ever watched a 200-mile race and wondered who’d actually win if you stripped away the Olympic sprinting hype? Most people assume men dominate every physical arena. It’s a common trope. Faster, stronger, higher—that’s the mantra we’ve been fed since gym class. But honestly, that’s a massive oversimplification that ignores how the human body actually functions once you get past the 50-mile mark or dive into freezing water.
The reality is that sports where women outperform men aren't just anomalies; they are grounded in physiological advantages that science is only recently starting to respect. When the finish line is three days away, or the environment is hostile enough to shut down a standard metabolic engine, the "fairer sex" often becomes the faster one.
We aren't talking about "adjusted" scores here. We’re talking about crossing the finish line first. Period.
The Ultra-Endurance Paradox: Why Longer is Better for Women
The gap closes as the miles add up. It’s basically a scientific law at this point. In a standard marathon, men are generally about 10% to 12% faster. But once you hit the "ultra" distances—the 100-milers, the 200-milers—that lead starts to evaporate.
A massive study by RunRepeat and the International Association of Ultrarunners analyzed over 5 million results from 15,451 ultra-running events. The data was pretty jarring for the "alpha" crowd. Once the race exceeds 195 miles, women are actually 0.6% faster than men on average.
Take Jasmine Paris. In 2019, she didn't just win the Spine Race—a brutal 268-mile trek across the Pennine Way in England—she absolutely demolished the course record. She finished in 83 hours, 12 minutes, and 23 seconds. That wasn't just a win in the women's category. She beat the fastest man by 15 hours. 15 hours! While expressing breast milk at checkpoints, no less.
Why does this happen? It’s not magic. It’s metabolic efficiency.
Fat, Muscle, and the Long Game
Men have more explosive power because of higher testosterone and more Type II (fast-twitch) muscle fibers. Great for a 100-meter dash. Kinda useless when you’ve been running for 40 hours.
Women have a higher percentage of Type I (slow-twitch) muscle fibers. These are the "diesel engines" of the human body. They are fatigue-resistant. Furthermore—oops, let's avoid that word—basically, women are much better at lipid metabolism. They burn fat for fuel more efficiently than men do. When a man’s glycogen stores tank and he "hits the wall," a woman’s body is often still cruising on its fat stores.
It’s about pacing, too. Dr. Nicholas Tiller, a researcher in exercise physiology, has noted that women are generally better at "metabolic pacing." They don't blow their engines in the first twenty miles. They stay steady. While men are busy competing with each other's egos in the first half of a race, women are often the ones picking up the "roadkill" (exhausted male runners) in the final fifty miles.
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Open Water Swimming: The Buoyancy and Insulation Factor
If you think running is the only place where the tables turn, look at the water. Specifically, the cold, choppy, terrifying open water.
Sarah Thomas is a name you should know. In 2019, she became the first human—not first woman, first human—to swim the English Channel four times non-stop. That’s 54 hours of continuous swimming. For decades, the record for the fastest Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming was held by women.
Swimming is a different beast because body composition matters in a way it doesn't on land.
- Buoyancy: Higher body fat percentages—specifically subcutaneous fat—act like a natural life jacket. It helps women stay higher in the water column without as much effort.
- Thermoregulation: That same fat layer provides better insulation against hypothermia.
- Efficiency: Men often have heavy, dense leg muscles that act like anchors in the water. Women tend to have a more streamlined center of gravity, which reduces drag.
Courtney Thompson, a high-level endurance swimmer, once joked that men are like Ferraris—fast but they run out of gas and hate the cold. Women are more like a well-oiled Subaru. We’ll get there, and we don't care if it’s snowing.
Precision and Psychological Grit: Ultra-Distance Cycling
Let’s talk about the Transcontinental Race. It’s a self-supported bicycle race across Europe. No drafting. No support crews. Just you, a bike, and about 4,000 kilometers of road.
In 2019, Fiona Kolbinger didn't just win the women's division; she was the overall winner. She beat 224 men. She finished in 10 days, 2 hours, and 48 minutes. The guy in second place was six hours behind her.
What’s interesting about cycling at this scale is that it isn't just about leg power. It’s about sleep deprivation management, navigation, and sheer mental resilience. There’s a growing body of evidence suggesting that women have a higher pain tolerance for prolonged discomfort.
Biologically, women’s bodies are built to endure the sustained, intense pain of childbirth. Whether that translates directly to a bike saddle is still being debated by sports scientists, but the anecdotal evidence from ultra-endurance athletes is overwhelming. Men tend to struggle more with the psychological "dip" that happens at 3:00 AM on day four of a race.
Equestrian Sports: The Great Equalizer
Horse racing and Three-Day Eventing are among the few sports where men and women compete head-to-head on a regular basis. There is no "women's league" in the Kentucky Derby or at the Olympic level of Dressage.
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And here’s the kicker: gender doesn't seem to matter at all.
Actually, in some ways, women have a slight edge. Lower body weight is an obvious advantage for the horse (less load to carry). But more importantly, equestrian sports are about "feel" and subtle communication.
The myth that you need "man-strength" to control a 1,200-pound animal is just that—a myth. If a horse wants to go, you aren't stopping it with your biceps. It’s about core strength and balance. Top-tier riders like Charlotte Dujardin or Pippa Funnell have shown that technical precision beats brute force every single time.
Precision Shooting and Archery
In the early days of Olympic shooting, the events were open. In 1992, Zhang Shan won the gold medal in the skeet shooting event, beating all the men. Shortly after, the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) barred women from competing against men in that specific event.
Some call it "protecting the sport." Others call it "protecting the male ego."
Studies on fine motor skills and stability show that women often have a lower heart rate and better "quiet eye" periods—the moment of stillness before pulling a trigger or releasing an arrow. In archery, while men can pull heavier bows (allowing for a flatter arrow trajectory), women’s scores in the high-precision categories are often identical or superior when normalized for distance.
Why Do These Gaps Exist?
It’s easy to get bogged down in the "men are stronger" argument. And yes, in a vacuum, if you ask a man and a woman to bench press, the man usually wins. But sports don't happen in a vacuum. They happen in the heat, the cold, the mud, and the dark.
The Estrogen Advantage
Estrogen is often dismissed as just a reproductive hormone, but it’s actually a performance enhancer for endurance. It protects muscles from damage. It aids in recovery. It makes cell membranes more stable.
Men produce more creatine kinase (a marker of muscle damage) after intense exercise than women do. Basically, men's muscles "break" faster. Women can sustain a high level of output for longer because their bodies are chemically geared toward repair and preservation.
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The Mental Game
Ask any ultra-marathon race director and they'll tell you: men DNF (Did Not Finish) at much higher rates than women.
Men often start too fast. They let their ego dictate the pace. When they realize they won't win or hit their "goal time," they quit. Women, statistically, are more likely to finish what they start. They are more adaptable to changing conditions and better at managing the logistics of "the grind."
Actionable Insights for Athletes
If you're looking to leverage this information—whether you're an athlete or a coach—there are a few takeaways that aren't just fluff.
For Female Athletes:
- Lean into the long game. If you feel like you aren't "fast" enough for 5Ks, try a 50K. Your body is built for it.
- Fuel differently. Don't follow a "bro-diet." Your fat-burning capacity is a superpower; learn how to fuel your body to maximize lipid oxidation during training.
- Trust your recovery. You likely recover from heavy sessions faster than your male counterparts. Use that to your advantage in high-volume training blocks.
For Everyone:
- Stop the "Gendered" coaching. Strength is great, but efficiency wins the decade.
- Watch the data, not the hype. The next time someone says women can't compete with men in sports, point them toward the results of the 2019 Spine Race or the 2019 Transcontinental.
The "strength gap" is real, but it’s narrow. The "endurance gap" is where women really shine. As the races get longer and the conditions get tougher, the biological advantages of the female body become undeniable. We are moving toward a future where the distinction between "men's" and "women's" sports might vanish entirely in the ultra-endurance world.
Honestly, the men might want to keep the categories separate. Just to save face.
Next Steps for Further Exploration:
- Analyze your metabolic profile: Use a metabolic cart test to see your fat vs. carbohydrate burn rates at different intensities.
- Research the "Estrogen Protection" theory: Look into the work of Dr. Stacy Sims, a leading expert in female-specific exercise physiology.
- Audit your pacing strategy: Use GPS data to compare your first-half vs. second-half splits in long-distance efforts.