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.
Women do have physiological advantages; longer lifespan, stronger immune system against both disease and parasites, better resistance to cold and starvation, greater flexibility and dexterity, better color perception. It’s just that most of them aren’t very applicable to sports (I don’t imagine that competitive parasitic infestation is likely to take off anytime soon).
IMHO, sports, to a large degree can be defined as “physical activities that men are good at”; it’s not so much that men are better at sports, as that most of them were defined as sports in the first place because men liked doing them.
Also, men are more variable than women. The nature of competition is that it highlights the people who are the far end of the positive side curve so as a rule, men are going to dominate in most competitions even if women on average are better. Note that men would also dominate in some hypothetical contest for “who is the worst” rather than the standard for who is the best.
I think there were some where the rules did not specially exclude females, so a manager threw one in as a stunt- so they changed the rules. In 1931 16-year-old female pitcher Jackie Mitchell struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and Female player were banned in MLB in 1952- but allowed back in 1992. Altho after that a few women did play in related leagues- there are none now. Since baseball might be the sport where women could do well- and they generally have not, that seems to disprove the OP.
Maybe tennis? After all Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs. But that was sort of a stunt game.
One area of sporting competition where women have a decent chance of matching or surpassing men is motorsports. Although many people don’t realize it, top-level auto racing is a very physically demanding activity, but it doesn’t require the muscle mass of field or ball sports.
Stamina, endurance, and quick reflexes are almost as important as upper body strength, and especially in the lighter, single-seat, open-wheel cars (e.g. IndyCar and Formula 1) having a smaller body is something of an advantage in terms of G-forces experienced and fuel consumption.
Several women have competed in IndyCar, with Danica Patrick being the best-known and most successful to date, starting 116 races, winning one, and coming in third in the 2009 Indianapolis 500. She also ran 252 NASCAR races.
Only five have competed in F1, none since 1992. But the FIA has had two feeder series for women, the W Series (2019-2022), and F1 Academy (2023-present). I watched Netflix’s documentary series about the latter, and I’ve watched a couple of races, but I haven’t followed it closely, so I don’t know how likely it is for any of those women to move up to the majors.
But as noted here, the motorsport in which women have been the most successful is drag racing.
In no other motorsport have women accomplished as much as they have in NHRA Drag Racing. The female drivers of the NHRA have racked up scores of firsts in the sport that place them head and shoulders above their peers in other motorsports. Here’s a look at some of those firsts.
I don’t follow any other racing series, so others may have more to add.
I suspect (and I think it’s a fairly widely held view) that a large part of what has kept women from being given more opportunities in motorsports is plain old sexism on the part of team bosses and sponsors. I don’t think it’s entirely coincidence that, even though there were several women in IndyCar, starting with Janet Guthrie in 1976, it was only Patrick, with her supermodel looks, who was able to get into a team that gave her a chance to show her skill.
And look at these men: F1 drivers, and these women: F1 Academy drivers, and tell me that as little attention was paid to the physical attractiveness of the women as of the men.
But women are making progress in racing, including in other areas besides driving. F1 has female pit crew members (very physically demanding) and strategists (not so much) like Bernie Collins.
You left out WRC (World Rally Championship). Michèle Mouton was one of the best rally drivers in the world. Not the best woman rally driver, but the best rally driver period.
Thanks. I was sure there were more examples.
WRC was on TV when I still had cable, and I loved watching it, but I haven’t followed it in several years now. I should get back to it.
No problem! i forgot to add she was also one of the Best Pike’s Peak Intl Hill climb drivers, and won it once. She retired from WRC mainly because the group she competed in - Group B - was banned for being too dangerous.
I don’t know, most of those drivers of both sexes look reasonably attractive to me. Which could be accounted for by them all being in good shape and in the primes of their lives. And of course those are posed pictures taken by photographers (and costumers and stylists and so on) trying to make all of them look good.
With current events being what they are, you never know.
Since we are including motorsports, another sport where women have excelled on the same playing field as men is Aerobatic competitions. Patty Wagstaff is well-known but one of the winningest aerobatic champions is Russia’s Svetlana Kapanina, who holds 39 World Titles (competing in both women’s and overall categories) and is arguably the best aerobatic pilot in the world.
CPI World League! Brought to you by the Secretary of Health! MAHA!
D’oh! I should have remembered that, too. Although I haven’t been in touch with her in decades, Patty was a friend, and I helped her team at several airshows, including holding a pole for a ribbon cut once. This is not that time, but shows what it is like.
Once the result of any contest is clear and obvious, I would expect the winner to break into a trot…
There would be runs surely.
At the top level, women simply couldn’t stand a chance, no.
My wife competed in All Around Weightlifting (as opposed to Olympic style) as a master (older) where men compete directly against women. She was in the 120 lb class and set a world record in the hip lift. Her sister Noi is a few years older and beat that mark. Noi holds 53 national records and the closest man holds 45. So it can happen.
She was 29 and still in her prime, having won a Grand Slam title that year. He was 55 and had been retired from competitive tennis for 22 years. Also, he beat Margaret Court a few months earlier.
There have been several “Battle of the Sexes” tennis matches, the most recent of which was 2025’s Sabalenka vs. Kyrgios. Their match had some special rules to give Sabalenka the edge, but Kyrgios still won. Sometimes women have won these matches, but it’s been in contrived situations where the players aren’t taking the match seriously. After a match where Karsten Braasch played and won against both Williams sisters, he said that any man above 500 ranking would be able to beat them because “men can chase down shots much more easily and put spin on the ball that female players could not handle.” That is a difference between men’s and women’s tennis. In men’s tennis, men can get to pretty much any ball. The goal becomes to hit the ball so hard and powerfully that the opponent can’t make a good return. In women’s tennis, they don’t have the same quickness or power. The goal there is to hit a ball in a place where the opponent either can’t get to it or they can’t get there quickly enough to make a good return.
One open competitive activity where women seem to outnumber men is in competive jigsaw puzzles. In the pictures I’ve seen of it, there seems to be a lot more women competing than men. And the results typically have more women at the top than men.
There have been high school girls win their division at state championships competing against boys in wrestling. This is another case where individuals compete against others in their weight class.
CrossFit competitions are often co-ed, at least at the local level.
