With each Olympic Games athletes are expected to break new records. Sport science experts have been speculating for years whether we are reaching the limits of human ability. But they may be overlooking the fields where there’s untapped potential: women’s sports.
The rates of improvements in female athletic performance appear to be exceeding that of their male counterparts. For example, between 1985-2004 the records of female marathon runners improved at a rate three times greater than men’s. This has led many people to question whether, despite a 10-12% performance gap in all distance sports, women may surpass men at endurance sports in the future.
