Women cross the 'Catalina Channel' faster than men.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Retrospective observational analysis of historical race records
PubMed 26180752 · doi:10.1186/s40064-015-1086-4
What was done
The authors analyzed performance and sex differences for successful crossings of the 20.1-mile (32.2 km) Catalina Channel between 1927 and 2014. They compared swimming times between women and men for the all-time fastest individuals, the top 3, the top 10, and annual fastest finishers (n = 39 women and n = 50 men), tracking performance trends over time using polynomial and linear regression.
What was found
The fastest woman ever was ~22 min faster than the fastest man ever. The difference between the 3 fastest women and men (~20 min faster for women) and the 10 fastest (~1 min faster for women) did not reach statistical significance (p > 0.05). However, comparing annual fastest swimmers from 1927 to 2014, women (651 ± 173 min) were 52.9 min (16 ± 12%) faster than men (704 ± 279 min) (p < 0.0001). Across years, swimming times decreased non-linearly for men and women, while the sex difference decreased linearly from 52.4% in 1927 to 7.1% in 2014.
Why it matters
This study provides historical evidence from the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming demonstrating that women have outperformed men in ultra-distance open-water swimming, though the performance gap has steadily narrowed over time.
Limits
The abstract reports only the fastest historical subsets (top finishers and annual fastest) rather than all successful crossings. Uncontrolled environmental variables inherent to open-water swims (such as water temperature, tides, weather, and currents) and historical participation disparities were not accounted for in the abstract. Comparisons between the top 3 and top 10 performers were not statistically significant.
Cited by
- supports In swimming over long distances, the performance difference between sexes evens out more quickly because women are naturally more buoyant.