# Historical question: Did sport divisions start segregating by sex because women were beating men in competitions?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-question-did-sport-divisions-start-segregating-by-sex-because-women-were-beating-men-in-competitions/1031876>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [July 23, 2026, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-question-did-sport-divisions-start-segregating-by-sex-because-women-were-beating-men-in-competitions/1031876 "2026-07-23T16:24:52Z")\
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**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-question-did-sport-divisions-start-segregating-by-sex-because-women-were-beating-men-in-competitions/1031876/21 "2026-07-23T18:14:47Z")

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I think we may be missing something in the men/women comparison.  
_On average_ men will win physical competitions, but what about the men who end up ranking lower than the above average women?.  
Say you have a race and it ends up:

1st a man  
2st a man  
3rd a woman  
4th a man.

The man placed fourth may, specially a century ago, feel specially slighted at being “beat by a gurl”, and that may have caused extra trouble and influenced the eventual segregation of sports.

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