Recent threads have discussed how women would fare against men if competing in tennis, football, baseball, etc.
I’m wondering if there are sports in which women can compete on an equal basis with men–and perhaps beat them at.
For instance, I’ve got to believe that equestrian events are pretty even, as would be pistol shooting, archery, etc.
Gynastics, of course, has different events, so it’s an unfair comparison. Obviously track and field events would be out. Perhaps as short-distance field-goal kickers in football?
martial arts esp Thai Boxing , women often compete in that
and are more agile and often faster than the men , although they don’t often fight mixed sex matches
Ultra-distance cycling, as well. For example, in the Furnace Creek 508 in 1992 Muffy Ritz was the only woman to finish. Out of nine finishers, she placed second. And, in 1995, Seana Hogan opened a can of whoopass and beat 22 men, setting a new course record.
I believe Seana also holds the record for San Francisco - LA, and she was in the overall lead in the Race Across America several times, though IIRC no woman has won that race outright.
Yep, there are no separate men’s and women’s competitions at Olympic level for equestrianism (although as far as I know this is the only unisex Olympic sport). Yachting is unisex for many events too - there was a big news story in the UK recently when Ellen MacArthur came second overall in the Vendée Globe single-handed round-the-world race, in spite of having to rescue another competitor who had run into difficulties en route.
I think women would have the advantage in archery. Supposedly (I don’t know if it’s just a UL) their heartbeat is different, so it helps them aim some how. I’m not sure how it works, I’ve just heard it. I don’t know if it’s true or not.
Auto racing
horse racing
Table tennis?
Downhill skiing?
Slalom (certainly relies much more on agility than strength)
Platform diving
I wonder about squash, racquetball and handball (anyone play that anymore, by the way)–since the court is a very confined area, agility must be very important, but I suppose men could still overpower women.
I think auto racing is a good one. Last year’s Paris-Dakar winner was a woman (although there was some penalty time added to the two previous leaders that gave her the win). You also have females coming up throguh the Nascar and Cart ranks and lets not forget their Drag Racing history in Shirley Muldowney.
Also add distance swimming. One of the local lakes (Otsego Lake) gets a few recorded swims each summer. This past week another local girl swam it prompting a story in the paper. The best time was a womans and it beat the best man’s time by around a half hour IIRC.
I’ve heard that women are good at long distance events because their bodies handle pain better, but I can’t back that up.
I’d hazard that women and men must be fairly close equals in badminton, seeing as how a medal’s been offered at the Olympics for mixed-doubles competition since 1996. It’s no sport to sneeze at, either:
Aerobatics. Patty Wagstaff has been the world aerobatic champion several times, competing against men. Plenty of other women have been competitive as well.
I would expect women to have difficulty competing with men in archery. As draw weights go up, women would be excluded at a higher rate than men. And I would expect bows with higher draw weights to be more accurate, as a faster-moving arrow would tend to be deflected less by wind.
But I am informed that, Greek myth notwithstanding, the right breast does not interfere with drawing a bow. So that shouldn’t be a problem anyway.
Theoretically, women ought to be superior to men in aerobatics and horse racing, as both sports reward light body weight. Is this the case?
One thing to remember is that men will often dominate women in sports where their ability is equal, simply because the pool of men to select from is so much greater.
This is the case in aerobatics. Patty Wagstaff has proven that a woman can fly as well or better than the best men. And sure, lighter body weight helps, as does the ability to tolerate higher ‘G’ forces, generally attributed to women because their weight distribution is lower on their bodies. But male champions still greatly outnumber the females, simply because there are 10 times more men competing than women.
Women compete with men in UK horse racing, but very few people argue their superiority.
The handicap system, for flat racing, sees weights allotted from 7st 7lb at the low end to 10st+ at the top end.
Lightweight riders, or apprentices, are booked for mounts with the very low weights here, but most handicaps see weights between 8st and 9st 7lb.
Most of the top jockeys can do a minimum of maybe 8st to 8st 5lb, and therefore weight is not a problem for these guys.
The majority of judges argue that strength in a finish is a factor which tells against women, but there are exceptions to this rule, although few and far between.
The Olympoics now have separate men’s and women’s shooting events, but that wasn’t always the case. Women USED to compete directly against men in Olympic shooting.
I remember well that at the 1976 Olympics, there was a tie for first place in one of the riflery events between an American man and an American woman. Both shooters wanted to do a playoff to determine the gold medal winner, but the rules already provided for a tiebreaking procedure, and the gold medal went to the male shooter.
Well, the male shooter himself said this was unfair… and as a sign of respect for his competitor, he invited her to stand at the top of the podium beside him, and they both held the gold medal as the national anthem played.
I don’t have time to look up the names of the shooters right now, but someone else undoubtedly will. This is on the level, not an urban legend! I saw it on TV during the Montreal Olympics
Nostradamus, in the US, there is a very famous woman jockey by the name of Julie Krone, who won 3,500 races including the Triple Crown. Here women are very much discouraged from being jockeys or race horse trainers so I don’t think there is equal acess. If there was (ie an equal number of women and men tried their hand at being jockeys) I think there would be many sucessful women jockeys. I have to think there is a social barrier at work in racing right now. After all, in other equestrian sports requiring speed, strength and guts – like 3-day eventing – there are many sucessful women riders and trainers. JMHO, of course.
I’d say long distance cycling, specifically the long time trial.
She used to turn out on our club runs occasionaly with her daughter Denise (also a good rider).
Very few men were as fast as her, just about all that were , were professional.
No-one in the world male or female was her equal at the 12 hour time trial and it took many years after she was past her peak before it was broken by a man, 32 years later she still holds the womens record - it may never be taken from her.