# The development of the performance sex gap in track-and-field events across the lifespan

## TL;DR

This study shows that the performance gap between men and women in track-and-field events changes with age and is influenced by factors like equipment scaling and event type.

## Contribution

The study reveals that the performance sex gap is not stable across the lifespan and is affected by event-specific and environmental factors.

## Key findings

- The performance sex gap emerges in prepubertal children and increases with age.
- Throwing events show a larger sex gap due to inconsistent scaling of equipment.
- Running events have a smaller sex gap among senior athletes compared to jumping events.

## Abstract

Due to sexual dimorphism, men outperform women in athletics, and thus they compete separately. Although the difference, called “the performance sex gap”, was thought to be stable across the lifespan, our research suggests that the gap changes with age. In our study, using publicly accessible databases, we collected data about top performances by men and women 5 to 100 years old in 18 track-and-field events sorted into three categories: running, jumping, and throwing. Our results suggest that the magnitude of the performance sex gap changes across the lifespan; it emerges in prepubertal children, widens among adolescents, stabilizes among senior athletes (i.e., 20–34 years old), and further increases among masters athletes (i.e., 35+ years old). Among seniors, the gap has been narrower in running events (i.e., approx. 10%) than in jumping events (i.e., approx. 15%). In throwing events, the gap differs considerably, largely due to the variable scaling of throwing implements based on sex and age group. Among masters, for instance, those implements are generally scaled down more for men than for women, which makes sex-based comparisons difficult. Beyond that, scaling in general is vaguely defined and varies across countries and events for children athletes (i.e., 5–15 years old). Altogether, our results indicate that not only physiology but also event-specific tasks and environmental constraints influence the performance sex gap. To ensure fair scaling, throwing implements used among masters women athletes may need to be downscaled to allow an appropriate comparison of how performance develops in both sexes.