Olympic Competition
Among world-class athletes, the world's fastest men are faster than the world's fastest women. Several comparisons of the average time of professional marathon swimmers at the Olympics and professional marathon races of various distances demonstrate this fact.
Competitiveness at Short-Distance and Middle-Distance Events
Even at short-distance events—like the RCP Tiburon Mile in the cold San Francisco Bay—and middle-distance events—like the Little Red Lighthouse Swim in the fast-moving Hudson River in New York—women perform very well against the men. Open Water Source looked at the results of various divisions of the 2010 RCP Tiburon Mile and the 2009 and 2010 Little Red Lighthouse Swims in New York:
Open Water Swimming
If one ignores the differences at the world-class level, it is interesting to look at the data and see how open water swimming—and marathon swimming in particular—may be unique among the world's sports. Based on the data, it appears that open water swimming may be the most competitive amateur sport when men and women race together.
The race is on. May the best (wo)man win.
Test your speed at an open water swimming event.Steven Munatones is a multi-time USA Swimming national open water swim team coach, NBC Olympics marathon swimming commentator, International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame inductee and 1982 world 25K swimming champion. He created the Open Water Swimming Dictionary, Open Water Source and The Daily News of Open Water Swimming.
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