Uh, same reason? The number of men who are physically capable of completing a rugged, hilly marathon course in any reasonable length of time greatly exceeds the number of women who can do so.
But the time comparison for men vs women don’t make any difference. If the top men complete the course in 2:10 and the top women complete the exact same course in 2:24, it doesn’t matter that the women take longer since the men are judged against other men and the women are judged against other women.
If you start judging solely on artistic merit, it stops being a sport, imho.
There’s really no need to start assuming a sexist bias in this area. There might be but t sure seems at face value that men are just better at sports in general.
At the Olympics there’s men’s (4 men), women’s (4 women), and mixed doubles (1 man and 1 woman, and significant changes in rules and strategy). The tournament was scheduled so that mixed doubles would end before the single-gender events begin, so that players could compete in both. Both the U.S. players will be, but some countries didn’t allow it in their selection process. At the club level there are also mixed (2 men and 2 women alternative shot order), and open (4 people).
In Boston, the men and women run the same course, but don’t start at the same time. At least, among the competitive elite athletes they do. I think the start order is women’s wheelchair, men’s wheelchair, elite women, elite men, and then everyone else. I always figured they used different finish lines for the men and women because the clock is different, they can get good TV pictures of the finishers, etc.
I’ve heard it said that this actually favors women. The prize money is the same, but since the women play less it works out that they’re making more money per hour, or per game than the men. I think women are also more likely to participate in singles and doubles because the singles is less taxing.
Running a marathon is a grueling, painful experience. Make the course too difficult for women and the majority of those women might simply decide to drop out, rather than to run it in 2:24.
It doesn’t get tougher than the Western States100and women finish that.
.
Utah’s sounds a bit worse (but women finish that too - although the record is apparently almost 4 hours slower than the men’s).
I’ll give a double fuck-that to the whole idea of ultramarathoning though:
I backpack at 10,000+ feet regularly (and rather slowly) and I’d only run if a bear was chasing me, and even then I’m sure I’d make a total hash out of it and be exhausted (and dead) very quickly.
The most critical piece of hiking equipment for those circumstances is a hiking partner you can outrun.
Shit, I think that’s what I am for my buddies. :smack:
If you are at 10,000 bears are no longer a large concern, now moose…they are responsible for more attacks than grizzly bear and black bears combined.
I don’t think that the gender divide makes much sense in many of the competitions. Can men’s typical size advantage really mean much in curling? In some sports the women probably have advantage if only body size is considered.
Hopefully this changes within my lifetime.
The equestrian events at the Olympics are completely gender-neutral. Men and women compete against each other, and the teams can be any combination of men & women.
But riding horses in general is very much female dominated. And the Olympic teams repeat this, with about 75% of them being female. But consistently the men win more of the medals. Possibly due to bias by the Judges, but it holds true even in events where the result is more numerically objective, like jumping.
With all due respect, in most sports it makes obvious sense. Men have physical advantages. And if you accept that there are physical differences, it is not beyond reason to suggest that in the less obvious sports there is a mental difference that has a male advantage. I know that there’s well studied differences in pattern recognition, for example. From an evolutionary view it’s not outlandish to think men might average better at mentally judging trajectories and being able to apply that judgement.
Does seem like it would advance equality.
Alpine Skiing
Biathlon
Bobsled
Cross Country
Curling
Figure Skating
Freestyle Skiing
Ice Hockey
Luge
Nordic Combined
Speed Skating
Skeleton
Ski Jumping
Snowboarding
In that list, there are several that benefit from lower weight or lower weight compared to surface area.
As in a few women were only given their first ski jumping event in 2014 I think that your assumption would require qualification. Time and experience will be required to tell.
As size also excludes the majority of men, who aren’t big enough to play in sports where that matters where do we have co-ed competitions that are based on weight class?
In some of these like Skeleton lighter athletes are allowed to use heavier sleds to partially mitigate weight advantages, but even in the case of the Biathlon, time lost at the shooting range, is the only major difference and could be made up by training and experience.
http://www.realbiathlon.com/2013/08/who-shoots-better-men-or-women.html
Do you have any cites that definitively prove my ideas as false?
I would think that a coaching gap could explain a lot of the difference in some of these sports.
Alas, bears are a big concern above 10,000 feet, as many a hiker can tell you. One of the grizzly bear’s favorite treats is the army cutworm moth, which contain a surprising amount of fat. Grizzlies eat a LOT of those moths. They’re like the potato chips of the grizzly world. I used to live near Yellowstone Park, and stories abound of bear encounters above 10k feet. Here’s a more authoritative source:
Not trying to jack the thread. I just hate to think people might assume they’re safe from bears if they reach that elevation.
Speed skating? Is that one even close? And your own biathlon cite still mostly gives the advantage to men with it only being shakier on the shooting accuracy. Rather than “find a cite that proves your ideas false”, which I’m not even sure would entail, I’ll link a cite to what I talked about:
Are Differences Between Men and Women in Rotated Pattern Recognition Due to the Use of Different Cognitive Strategies?
Maybe some of that is socialization or coaching but I don’t know. But I doubt it’ll change much in your lifetime.
I can’t really understand what the OP is on about and I really don’t care. I just had to add this:
I never watched or cared about any Olympics before in my life, but the Women’s Halfpipe happened to be on earlier and I began watching idly. I quickly became amazed at what they were doing: the multiple flips and twists over the side… I kept thinking, “how in the hell do they do that?” I have never watched any kind of snowboarding event before and was really, really impressed.
Then a little while later, I saw the Men’s Halfpipe.
Holy fuckin’ shit. The level of intricacy of the male snowboarder’s flips and tricks was astonishingly superior to the women’s. Again, I have never seen anyone snowboarding before in my life and I had no preconceived notion of what it was supposed to look like. But it was obvious that whatever kind of physicality is necessary to pull that off, the best of the women were in no way equal to the best of the men. It wasn’t merely that the men were doing more flipping and flying, it’s that they made it look so easy whereas the women were visibly exerting more physical effort. I could tell those women (and they were damn good, I’m not trying to take anything away from them) really had to grind out every last bit of physical effort to muscle their way over the sides and into the spins and flips, and it showed. The men moved as if they were powered by high-performance engines.
Nothing in your cite proves a biological difference there, it could be based on gender norms etc…
Also note:
Can you provide a cite that there is a biological bases for some cognitive difference that cannot be overcome by the elite examples of each gender?
Sure the number of women who may be able to compete in the worlds strongest man competition may be a lower number than those who are large enough and are male, but you are claiming a fundamental difference in general, and your cite does nothing to support your claim.
rat avatar seems to be Labouring under the common misconception that since strength is not everything, it’s the same as saying strength is nothing.
All the sports listed have fairly high strength requirements.