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by HungryGuy on August 29th, 2004

HungryGuy

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Will men and women ever be able to compete as equals in a sports? Or are mens' and womens' physiques so different that this will never be possible?

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  • by Anonymous on December 9th, 2004

    Anonymous

    Women have won the Khiel's Badwater Ultra Marathon 4 out of the past 5 years (http://www.badwaterultra.com/). So yes, men and women do compete equally in some sports even now. And women are capable of winning. Badwater is an extreme (almost crazy) endurance race of 5 consecutive, non-stop marathons--a total of 135 miles from Badwater in Death Valley (elev. 280 feet below sea level) to Whitney Portals on Mt. Whitney (elev. 8360 feet)--in extreme temperatures. It's an amazing feat to merely finish and a testament to the strength of women that they have outperformed men so many times.

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  • by Thom64 on August 30th, 2004

    Thom64

    One only has to look at the actual average performances at the Olympic games or any international competition to see that in most strength and speed dependent athletic events the women simply don't perform in the same class as the men.

    The body chemistry and musculature of the human male and female really are significantly different. One has only to look at the men and women to see that world-class men have far more muscle mass than the world-class women. I think this would be even more apparent if none of the athletes were using... hmmm, shall we say: chemical supplements not occurring in normal foods?

    Hypothetically, one could begin a long term selective breeding program which could, perhaps, yield a population of women athletically competitive with men, but unless some significant disease or environmental change selects all the strong and vigorous male genes out of the gene pool, I don't see any probable scenario with the outcome you describe. Perhaps using chemical means the playing field could be leveled... but I think this is a very bad idea.

    The future is, however, uncertain. The performances of today's athletes may well have amazed athletes of only a few decades ago. Perhaps the future holds even more surprises...

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  • by Grandma Roses - my avatar is my real dog on September 26th, 2005

    Grandma Roses - my avatar is my real dog

    Let's not forget that most of the activities that are today called sports were engaged in mainly by males and therefore, things that males were, or could become, good at, things requiring strength, muscle mass, etc., as so many have already mentioned. So in a way, the sports were 'pre-selected' to include those in which men have a natural advantage.

    Only in those sports where the brute strength element is not pre-dominant will you find that the playing field is pretty level; as mentioned, swimming or long distance, endurance types of sports.

    Now, if there was an Olympic event for simultaneously feeding a baby, cooking dinner, supervising homework, fielding phonecalls, planning the PTA meeting , keeping the dog from chasing the cat, paying the paperboy at the door and bandaging the toddler's knee, women would win hands down every time!!

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  • by Anonymous on November 22nd, 2004

    Anonymous

    Theories exist that the gender inequality in sports will one day even out. Many point to track and field events where, over time, women's times have improved exponentially and men's have remianed somewhat stagnant.

    In sports like autoracing, men and women do compete as equals. Sarah Fisher, who races in the IRL circuit, made history in 2001 by placing 2nd out of a field otherwise dominated by men (http://www.sarahfisher.com/biography/biography.html). Although some may argue the athleticism of a sport like autoracing, drivers will tell you that racing is extremely physically taxing--requiring great amounts of body strength, enduring extreme temperatures, and demanding precision hand-eye coordination,

    Keep in mind the history of women's athletics is shorter than that of men's. Progress always takes time. Although the WNBA is only a few years old, many of the female players could probably hold their own against players from the early NBA--both in size, strength and skill.

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  • by R U Sirius on July 12th, 2005

    R U Sirius

    Football: I'd like to see a woman bring down Jerome Bettis "The Bus"
    or how about Ray Lewis crushing a female head on.
    (not a chance)

    Baseball: How about a lady batting against Nolan Ryan and his 100 mph
    fastball. (Sure----this could happen but a stretch)

    Basketball: How about a woman trying to guard Shaquille O'Neal?
    (not a chance)

    Nascar/Formula: Danica is holding her own.

    Golf: Michelle Wie hitting drives close to 300yds and although
    she did'nt make the cut. She still beat some men.

    Although women could compete with men. I don't see it as being a regular occurrence especially in the heavy contact sports. But other than that. Sure---- may the best man/woman win.

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  • by Anonymous on September 23rd, 2006

    Anonymous

    Men and Women do compete equally in the equestrian sport. And yes it is a sport! It is a worldwide and olympic sport. Gender of either human or horse compete on an equal basis!!

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  • by theknowitall on July 14th, 2006

    theknowitall

    As mentioed above for the specific event of the Badwater Ultra Marathon, women have won extreme endurance, straight up, head to head against men on many occasions. Similar "Ultra" events like the Western States 100 have also been won by women. In fact, the word "Ultra" might have been assesed by men because these challenges were the most extreme test men considered imaginable. One could consider the nature of the 9 month process of incubation or the lifelong process of child-rearing to make endurance a more instinctive attribute.

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  • by Mike K on October 31st, 2005

    Mike K

    It depends entirely on the sport.

    In physical contact sports such as rugby union, rugby league and gridiron, men are mosre likely to be better - simply because they are more aggressive due to their naturally occurring hormones and are probably better built for such sports.

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  • by Scoundral on June 12th, 2005

    Scoundral

    If you mean- will men and women ever be equally matched physically? no, they wont. Men, as a whole, tend to excell in activities that require large exersions of strength at given times; where women tend to excell in activities that require endurance and extended periods of muscle activity. As a genralization, our two genders will always be differant enough that one or the other will be dominant in a given field. But that's not to say that a woman will never be able to hold her own in a "man's sport" or a man in a "woman's sport". But I personally find seperating our sports by gender to be the wrong solution (i.e. PGA and LPGA).

    If we seperate genders for being differant, we might as well seperate races for being differant, and age groups. We already seperate weight classes for some sports, and in an effort to be completely fair the final answer is to break leagues down until they are small enough to be considered "equally matched". Sports are not about equal matches, they are about someone being better than someone else. The best solutions, in my personal opinion, is to let everyone give it a shot- some will succeed because they are the best (without exception) and others will not, let the peices fall where they may. If 99% of them are men and 1% are women, then it's clearly something men tend to accell at, but that doesn't mean we should exclude the few women who can hold their own. The same is true if 99% are women and 1% are men. Best is best, regardless of race, gender, etc. And if you're not the best, there are minor leagues to try-out for.

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  • by Aminor on June 9th, 2005

    Aminor

    I believe the US National aerobatic championships are non-gender specific, and Patty Wagstaff is a perennial winner in the unlimited category, which is extremely demanding, both mentally and physically. Internationally, the FAI World Grand Prix of aerobatics is definitely non-gender classified. But there are also some international team competitions in which countries submit men and women teams, but I don't know if they compete separately.

    There are other women prominent in the sport also, but Wagstaff has been a force for years, both as a dominating competitor and as a touring performer.

    And I can't resist this: Guys, if you're picturing some leather-skinned, grim-jawed Valkyrie, do yourself a favor, take a look at http://www.pattywagstaff.com

    It's not hard to understand that where power-to-weight ratios are critical or sheer muscle mass is not the issue, women can compete evenly: extreme endurance running where survival is as much an issue as time, flying, probably some others. It's also not hard to understand that since most sports reward physical force one way or another, the genders will probably never compete equally in most of them.

    When I was a tad gobbling up sci fi, it was frequently theorized that the first astronauts (a term not then invented) would be women, because of the aforementioned power-to-weight ratio -- men have more muscle mass but they pay a penalty in weight, and it may not be a good trade if they're not going to be lifting weights. In the event, it didn't happen because there was enough power available for crew weight not to be a critical factor, and all the early astronauts were ex-military, not then open to women in any serious way.

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  • by hallagan on January 12th, 2010

    hallagan

    I wanna see women compete with men in the following sports and tv should do it for ratings if they were smart which there not.Football (USA style),Golf,Boxing,Mixed martial arts,Baseball,Nascar,Basketball.I believe the women and men should sign a sexual harassment waiver so if a dude brushes a womens breast while competing in sports he don't have to worry about court and if a women rubs up agianst a guys but she don't have to worry about the same.

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  • by timthearchitect on October 6th, 2009

    timthearchitect

    Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile in 1954, The fastest womans time is 4:12:86 ran by Svetlana Masterkova in 1996. Not even close, so dont say women are equal in Physical Sports. Sorry Girls I still love you anyways.

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