Abstract
It was assumed that women would be able to outperform men in ultra-marathon running. The present study investigated the sex difference in performance for all ultra-triathlon distances from the Ironman distance (i.e. 3.8 km swimming, 180 km cycling and 42 km running) in the ‘Ironman Hawaii’ to the Double Deca Iron ultra-triathlon distance (i.e. 76 km swimming, 3,600 km cycling and 840 km running) between 1978 and 2013. The changes in performance and in the sex difference in performance for the annual three fastest finishers were analysed using linear, non-linear and multi-variate regression analyses from 46,123 athletes (i.e. 9,802 women and 46,123 men). Women accounted for 11.9 ± 5.8% of the total field and their percentage was highest in ‘Ironman Hawaii’ (22.1%) and lowest in Deca Iron ultra-triathlon (6.5%). In ‘Ironman Hawaii’, the sex difference decreased non-linearly in swimming, cycling, running and overall race time. In Double Iron ultra-triathlon, the sex difference increased non-linearly in overall race time. In Triple Iron ultra-triathlon, the sex difference increased non-linearly in cycling and overall race time but linearly in running. For the three fastest finishers ever, the sex difference in performance showed no change with increasing race distance with the exception for the swimming split where the sex difference increased with increasing race distance (r2 = 0.93, P = 0.001). The sex differences for the three fastest finishers ever for swimming, cycling, running and overall race times for all distances from Ironman to Deca Iron ultra-triathlon were 27.0 ± 17.8%, 24.3 ± 9.9%, 24.5 ± 11.0%, and 24.0 ± 6.7%, respectively. To summarize, these findings showed that women reduced the sex difference in the shorter ultra-triathlon distances (i.e. Ironman distance) but extended the sex difference in longer distances (i.e. Double and Triple Iron ultra-triathlon). It seems very unlikely that women will ever outperform men in ultra-triathlons from Ironman to Double Iron ultra-triathlon.
Highlights
A few years ago, Beneke et al (2005) argued that women would be able to outperform men in ultra-marathon running
The aim of this study was to investigate the sex difference in ultra-triathlon performance for each split discipline and overall race time in different triathlon distances ranging from the Ironman distance (i.e. 3.8 km swimming, 180 km cycling and 42 km running) in ‘Ironman Hawaii’ to the Ironman Hawaii (1978–2013)
Conclusions women reduced the sex difference in the shorter ultra-triathlon distances (i.e. Ironman distance), the sex difference in longer triathlon distances (i.e. Double and the Triple Iron ultra-triathlon distance) remained greater compared to the single Ironman distance
Summary
A few years ago, Beneke et al (2005) argued that women would be able to outperform men in ultra-marathon running. The assumption that women might outrun men in ultra-marathon running was supported by the comparison of female and male performance in different running distances. The distance for a woman to outperform a man should be most probably longer than 200 km as it has been found in the 216 km ‘Badwater’ and the 1,200 km ‘Deutschlandlauf’. Other reasons such as participation trends and motivational trends might limit women’s ultra-endurance performance. Women in ultra-endurance are rather task-oriented and internally motivated (Krouse et al 2011)
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