hmmm…do you think the best girls in the individual sports of triathlon would beat the best guys in triathlon in that single sport???
would top female marathoner beat top male marathoner in ironman?
would top female distance swimmer beat top male swimmer in ironman?
would top female cyclist beat top male cyclist in triathlon?
hmm…is it me or does it seem that the only one the guys would win would be cycling?
First of all while Paula Radcliffe would likely dust any of the guys in a marathon, I would bet you are wrong on the swim analysis. More important, what’s your point?
if a female is running an open marathon vs a male running a marathon after S&b, yep she wins. The top distnace swimmer female would probably beat the men in an IM.
But the distnace swimmers aren’t training to swim 2.4 just 1500m so the comparison is not a good one.
the guys who train for ironman arent really even training for a 3.8km swim. theyre training to get through it at a fairly good rate, but not to race it, especially at an elite level. i dont think you realise how fast these distance swimmers go…
i dont think any of top male im runners would beat paula radcliffe etc in a marathon…
heh would be interesting to see grant hackett hold something like 1.02-04 pace for an im swim.
I dunno…the guy who is consistenly 1st out of the water at Kona sure seems to be training to beat that record.
Results for the Women’s 5K open water swim at last year’s World Championships (2.4 miles is too short for them)
Rank Athlete Country
LOPEZ Xenia ESP 0:57:20.4
HUTCHINSON Trudee AUS 0:57:20.4
ZHDANOVA Ekaterina RUS 0:57:43.7
Men’s winner went 53:11 last year
thatd be without wetsuits too wouldnt it?
Women’s WR for 1500 FS: Janet Evans - 15:52
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This is obvious to people who pay attention, but the longer the event, the smaller the gap is between elite women and men in running and swimming.
I just crunched the numbers and the fastest women are 12 % slower than Phelps in the IM and 12 % slower than Popov’s sprint records. Janet’s best is more than a minute slower than the men’s best 1500, but it puts her nearly 93 % of the pace.
Same for marathons v. 800 meters: Paula’s record is 92 % the pace of Tergat’s, but in the 800 Lurdes Mutola runs 88 % the pace of the men’s WR.
Then there’s ultras, where women sometimes beat all the men. Does a woman hold the English Channel record?
This is off the top of my head, by the way. I didn’t look anything up … Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Poll: Could Hackett break the 40 minute mark for an IM swim?
I vote yes.
Dan
Unless the single sport girls compete against the tri-boys in hot oil wrestling. Even if the females are successful, no one loses.
Interesting!
would top female marathoner beat top male marathoner in ironman?
If you are talking about Paula Radcliffe vs. Peter Reid in straight up marathon, then with respect to Peter, Paula would very likley win this one. By and large, most of the top IM men are a bit too large to really run fast, say sub 2:25.
would top female distance swimmer beat top male swimmer in ironman?
If you are talking about a top woman open water distance specialist, then yes, she would beat the top IM male swimmers. Actually, the top women open water swim specialists often finish very well against the men in that sport.
would top female cyclist beat top male cyclist in triathlon?
If you are talking about a top woman TT’er, say Karin Thurig(Bronze in Olympic TT), against a top IM distance male triathlete, say Thomas Hellreigel, then this battle would go to the male triathlete. Actually Thurig has competed at IMH and has finished in the top 10 women, but her bike splits at IMH have not been that fast really.