Men Do It Better, Most of The Time

I've been watching the olympics every night and as usual, they have been simply fantastic. I have always been a big fan of the winter games, mostly because I like winter sports, but also because it doesn't have track and field. All that aside, I'm watching qualification for the men's freestyle aerial skiing. The women qualified yesterday and as impressive as they were, the men simply blow them off the snow. They get way higher on the takeoff, are able to complete many more turns, flips and rotations and generally just look better doing it.

Now I'm not trying to bash on my fellow ladies here, but I think that most people would agree that when competing at the top level, men will always outperform the women. Now obviously Serena Williams could beat most men at tennis but I would argue that she couldn't beat a single male who plays on the professional tour. The same could be said of any LPGA, WNBA or track and field athlete. Men are just made stronger, have larger bodies and sport more muscle.

So, my question is, is there a sport that anyone can think of where women perform as equals with men? Can you think of any sport in which the best women can not only compete with men but beat the best of the men? I can think of only one and it's a sport in which humans play only a small part. I'm speaking of course about horse racing. For the most part, racing segregates it's races along gender lines and lets the boys face the boys and the girls face the girls. But here's the thing, in most high level stakes races (Kentucky Derby, Breeders Cup Classic, etc.) the races are open to both genders and from time to time, a filly or mare comes along that leaves the colts literally eating her dust.

This past year, we saw that happen twice, with Rachel Alexander in the 3 year old classics (Preakness Stakes among others) and Zenyata, the wonder filly who beat the best in the world while winning the Breeders Cup Classic. This happens in no other sport that I can think of but I'm happy to be proven wrong. Anways, just something that crossed my mind as I watched these guys do some shit that I wish I could do.

6 comments:

First Tenor | February 23, 2010 at 11:56 AM

Bowling

Kelly | February 24, 2010 at 8:07 PM

I disagree as men are stronger and because of that they have more control over the ball and are thus more likely to make a strike or spare. Now with the average bowler, probably not a lot of difference but on the pro tour, no way the ladies match the men.

Anonymous | February 25, 2010 at 10:37 AM

A woman very recently won a PGA Tour event against a field of men.

alan | February 25, 2010 at 12:47 PM

NHRA for years now, starting with Shirley Muldowney and right through Ashley Force Hood...

In the next 5 years as the sponsorships ramp up to get them into good cars, the girls coming up in NASCAR right now will be winning as often as the men...

Danica Patrick already won one IRL race, and is maturing into as good a driver as ever took the track. If she can get some sponsorship (that equipment thing again) Sarah Fisher is right behind her.

Shooting sports are another place where women regularly "school" the men.

alan

FriĆ°vin | March 1, 2010 at 1:58 PM

Another could be curling. I can't imagine the US Women's team not kicking the butts of the men's team this year.

Kara | March 4, 2010 at 10:47 AM

Women typically perform better than men in ultra-endurance events. In distances longer than 42km, women typically do better than their male counterparts.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8776224?dopt=Abstract