Well, back in '26 Gertrude Ederle beat the men’s France-to-England record (which was also the record period, beating all previous F-to-E and E-to-F swims). Lynne Cox beat the men’s England-to-France record in '72; a man promptly set a new England-to-France record, but in '73 Cox set yet another England-to-France record – which later fell to Tina Bischoff, in '76 (setting a new record regardless of direction), followed by Penny Lee Dean in '78 (ditto).
(Dean’s record stood until '94, when the male she’d coached broke it.)
I have to say I’m skeptical that Serena Williams would struggle quite as much as people say. As I’ve said even at the highest US college level, the pace of her serve (the area where men have the most obvious advantage) would give her an advantage.
Soccer is a sport where I know that there is a huge disparity in terms of sheer quality let alone physicality in between the men’s and women’s games. About 10 years ago I wouldn’t have given the many women’s national team much of a chance against a good Sunday League (lowest organised level) side. There’s definitely been a big improvement in the women’s game recently, but I’d still be skeptical if a World women’s all-star team could do real damage against a men’s semi-pro team.
The men do have a huge advantage in the serve, but they also have advantages on every single other aspect of the game. She would serve fairly well for the University men’s level, but could not win matches against better college men.
In college, Todd Martin was playing for Northwestern University. Imagine that kind of level player in college against Serena.
I’m not convinced they would necessarily be technically better (assuming we’re talking about a high level junior team, such as a national team), in soccer the technical side is more important than the physical side and as I say the men’s game is lightyears ahead technically
Can I just fling in my tuppence worth? I’ve been watching a bit of women’s soccer recently, and the technical skills are pretty good - ball control, vision and off-ball movement, passing etc, but it all seems very slow compared to the men’s game.
The football I watch live is lower division Scottish League, with many of the players being part-time. The best women’s international side would struggle to win many games at that level. On the other hand, two well-matched teams can have a very entertaining game, no matter the skill level, as the recent Euro tournament proved. I probably watched more of that women’s tournament than I did the last men’s one.
I’ve personally witnessed a scrimmage against a team of 14 year olds (I think, memory isn’t what it used to be, young teens anyway). Ended 0-0. Now it was an elite group of 14 year olds (Cal South ODP team), but the result was a fair one. They were evenly matched.
I assume USWNT = US Women’s National (Soccer) Team.
Also, although this may be included in “outjumped”, male goalies tend to have a much wider reach. IIRC, one of the top women’s players pointed out that it’s almost impossible for a woman to miss a penalty kick if she is reasonably accurate. (That might also be true for the men, but the “area of certainty” for men is smaller - something along the lines of “in the upper corner of the goal” against “aim for the side net just inside either goal post”, I think).
John McEnroe said it again, this time saying she would rank about 700. He figures currently, he would rank about 1200, if you are curious. He’s in really good shape.
“She’s really great; it’d be an honor to play her.” “Impossible to say.” “I’ll leave that to the experts.”
I’m not even suggesting his answer was wrong. I’m saying that, given McEnroe’s answer was controversial, this no-name is likely to only gain negative press by saying the same thing.
Men’s tennis is virtually a different sport than women’s tennis. IMO it’s silly to compare them directly unless one’s point is to reinforce the general physical athletic superiority of men (which is entirely unnecessary) or belittle Serena (or women in general). How Serena would perform against men has nothing to do with her overall legacy and level of achievement as a player and as an athlete.
*Would *she? That seems to be the very premise this thread is challenging. Has this been tested before? Your statement is a bit hard to parse, so are you saying she would beat 99.99% of men who don’t play tennis, and also even 99.99% of men who *do *play tennis?
The top 20 male players in the world are probably in that 0.01% of men listed in your category whom Serena wouldn’t beat, given that hundreds of thousands(?) of men play tennis and the top 20 therefore represents the upper tiniest percentile, the cream of the cream of the crop.
The U.S. women’s team is probably slightly better than the Aussies, but a team of high school aged American 17-18 years old guys could probably beat them as handily as well.
And if the U.S. women’s team went into the men’s World Cup and the men (guys like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, etc.) played them full effort with no let up, the men might crush them 25-0 or something like that.