Women can outperform men in this sport
There is little to no difference when it comes to the question of ability between men and women in these sports.
Courtesy - Yunqi Li
The Paris Olympics marked a historic milestone with gender parity, yet the complexities of athletic performance remain. While traditional narratives often highlight inherent physical differences between men and women, certain sports challenge this binary, and leverage mental strength rather than the prowess of physical strength. Shooting – for instance, showcases a remarkable playing field, with women consistently matching or surpassing male competitors.
This year’s Olympics proved the point, by five women bagging the Top 6 positions in the two-shooter team events. According to research done after the Tokyo Olympics, these results don’t weren’t just wayward outcomes, as researchers found no difference between men and women in air rifle competitions. It was concluded that while men do better with moving targets, women have higher chances of winning in shooting stationary targets.
Although sex plays a crucial role, it doesn’t determine the winner, as women can outperform men in a range of sports, from sport shooting to equestrian sports, and likewise for men. While physical attributes undoubtedly influence performance in many sports, the dominance of mental acuity in sharpshooting, air rifle shooting, ultra running, and marathon swimming, challenges traditional gender roles.
Sharp Shooting
As reported by the Guardian, in sports like Sharp Shooting, women are placed at a high advantage due to a women’s lower body mass and lower center of gravity, hip rest, which allows them better equilibrium control.
The International Shooting Sport Federation stated, “Although ISSF does wish to maintain two separate Male and Woman categories, the field of play evidence confirms that men and women are typically shooting similar scores. Thus, the Woman category need not be ‘protected’ per se in the name of fairness. The gender category protection component is thus not a concern … to consider in shooting at an elite level.”
Combining men and women as individuals in air rifles, instead of having mixed teams, can allow for games that were cut from the Olympics, like prone rifles can make a historic return.
Long Distance Swimming
In endurance races like ultradistance events, where there are multiple factors apart from physical strength like distressing weather conditions to rugged grounds, endurance to such conditions becomes really important; which makes the gap between men and women even smaller. An analysis done on ultrarunning results showed that beyond 1314km, women were 0.6 percent faster, as this could be because women recover from strenuous activities faster, as they have lower muscle mass.
Even in long-distance swimming, women’s higher proportion of body fat helps regulate body temperatures in colder waters, along with floating on the water. Usually, women have a lower surface area as opposed to men, which also determines how cold one can feel.
The world of sports swirls around the “if” factor, but in this case, “If men and women competed as individuals in sports based on mental strength, what would the Olympics look like?” can come true.
