Are there any sporting events / activities in which women are superior to men?

joalturn wrote:

I think the murkiest sport would be ultra running. Some look at the great performances of women that surpass many men as evidence that women are superior in that sport. Others would argue that not enough elite male athletes partake in ultra running, thus making it a weak sport.

I don't think women actually surpass men in ultra running. Sure, they can win races when the best men don't show up, but I've never seen any evidence that they're actually better at it. It's pretty clear if you look at the big races, eg Western States.

Great thread on this.

You would think that sport shooting would not give any natural advantage to a man.

For Some Reason wrote:

Women have defeated men in head to head competitions in equestrian events, shooting, and archery. And in any single game of bowling, a woman could bowl a 300 on some occasions.

These events do not meet the criteria of "sport", fwiw. The title includes "activities", but still wanted to point that out.

Bowling, shooting, curling....should not be any advantage or disadvantage for either gender

Liberal Larry wrote:

Gymnastics wrote:

Easily gymnastics.

I don't think so. If they competed in same events, men would clean up.

Have you ever thought about why men and women don't so the same events in gymnastics, unlike most other sports?

Obviously men have more strength and power but women are more flexible. There is no way a 16-year old boy could do some of the moves on uneven bars or floor exercise that world class 16-year old girls are doing.

donut wrote:

Liberal Larry wrote:

I don't think so. If they competed in same events, men would clean up.

Have you ever thought about why men and women don't so the same events in gymnastics, unlike most other sports?

Obviously men have more strength and power but women are more flexible. There is no way a 16-year old boy could do some of the moves on uneven bars or floor exercise that world class 16-year old girls are doing.

Maybe, but the 20 something guys can. Watch the video.

Long distance swimming wrote:

Ultra long distance swimming

We can look at U.S. high school freestyle swimming times from 50 yards to 500 yards. Girls swim closer by percentage to boys as the distance increases. Same thing for 50 yards to 1650 yards for college performances. This holds true for world class swimmers 50m to 1500m. Women are built for swimming more than men. The natural curves of a female physique aids bouncy. Men dominate shorter events due to differences in brute strength between men and women. If enough women participate in swimming events longer than 10K, women would close the gap and pass men in a longer distance swimming event yet to be determined.

Shopping.

Need greater women participation wrote:

Long distance swimming wrote:

Ultra long distance swimming

The natural curves of a female physique aids bouncy.

Yeah, but what does this have to do with swimming?

Ski jumping

If women choose to participate in greater numbers there is no reason why women cannot be superior thoroughbred horse jockeys, NASCAR & Formula 1 race car drivers.

Drag racing. A quick scan of World Champions include Brittany Force, Shirley Muldowney, Angelle Sampey, Erica Enders-Stevens, and maybe more.

Maybe someone here knows more than me but: Ann Trason finished second at Western in 1994, and I think was frequently near the top in the early 90's. She even led races past 1/2 way if I remember correctly.

Western was the highest quality field at the time. I know there are a lot of qualifications to this, but she was mixing it up with the best men. This is something that you would essentially never see in "normal" running events. Semenya would be 3-4 seconds down at 800 on the best 1500 guys. The women's 10k WR is slower than Kipchoge's 10k split for his WR marathon.

No, women are not as good as men at ultra running, but they, on occasion, are in the mix with the best men.

fggdfgfgdgdf wrote:

Maybe someone here knows more than me but: Ann Trason finished second at Western in 1994, and I think was frequently near the top in the early 90's. She even led races past 1/2 way if I remember correctly.

Western was the highest quality field at the time. I know there are a lot of qualifications to this, but she was mixing it up with the best men. This is something that you would essentially never see in "normal" running events. Semenya would be 3-4 seconds down at 800 on the best 1500 guys. The women's 10k WR is slower than Kipchoge's 10k split for his WR marathon.

No, women are not as good as men at ultra running, but they, on occasion, are in the mix with the best men.

What you are missing is that Trason was simply a higher caliber runner than most of the guys she was racing at Western States the time. Her record at Leadville from 94 still stands for women but it is two hours and twenty four minutes behind Caprenter's record from 9 years later. It is not like she won Comrades overall for both men or women or anything.

The number of races and quality of fields in ultra running, especially in the old days leads some to come to the wrong conclusion about how close women are to men in ultra running. No one would be surprised if a pro women beat a sub-elite man in a marathon. Since this is more likely to happen in an ultra people get the wrong idea.

Runnerchx44 wrote:

J.D. Byrighers wrote:

giving birth...

Ding ding ding. I think it’s funny when I hear of stories of men who can’t handle being in the room when their child is born. Really? Your wife just housed a human being inside her belly for 9 months and is now pushing it out into the world and you cant handle watching!?

You're making a lot of assumptions there, buddy! Maybe they knew something you didn't.

Evading runner dorks

the final answer/////////// wrote:

Shopping.

Wrong! The aim of shopping is to minimise spending, not maximise it.

I think limbo dancing might be one of the few examples.

Bare Briant wrote:

Even those that don't require much musculature like chess or badminton?

You're clearly not familiar with top-level badminton...

As to the general sense of your question: Yes, there are some world-class female athletes who can occasionally win against fields of sub-elite men. Are there any female athletes in any sport who are consistently better than their best male counterparts? No.

Motor sports, equestrian, and thoroughbred racing have been mentioned in previous posts, but those are activities in which the women are quite literally not the ones supplying the horsepower.