Sex differences in ultra-triathlon performance at increasing race distance.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Retrospective observational comparative study of race registry data (by design analogy, non-clinical).
PubMed 24032340 · doi:10.2466/30.06.PMS.116.2.690-706
What was done
Authors evaluated race times and split times for male and female elite triathletes competing in Ironman Hawaii (3.8 km swim, 180 km bike, 42.195 km run) and Double Iron ultra-triathlons (7.6 km swim, 360 km bike, 84.4 km run) between 1999 and 2011. The dataset included 20,638 athletes from Ironman Hawaii (5,163 women, 15,475 men) and 1,395 athletes from Double Iron events worldwide (143 women, 1,252 men).
What was found
Sex differences in overall race time among the top three finishers remained unchanged from 1999 to 2011 for both Ironman Hawaii and Double Iron competitions. The performance gap between sexes was larger at the longer Double Iron distance than at the Ironman distance. The abstract reports directional trends but provides no absolute times, split metrics, percentage gaps, or p-values.
Why it matters
The findings challenge the concept that female athletes catch up to or outperform male athletes as race distances expand into ultra-endurance ranges.
Limits
The abstract provides no numerical data, variance estimates, or effect sizes for race and split times. Trend analysis was limited to the top three finishers. The Double Iron female sample was small (143 over 12 years) relative to men, reflecting a substantial participation skew. Physiological and anthropometric explanations proposed were not directly measured.
Cited by
- context As endurance race distances increase, the performance gap between male and female competitors narrows.