Abstract des Autors

In recent years, more women competed in shorter running races (10 km to marathon) than in longer races (ultra-marathons longer than a marathon). Generally, men are running faster than women with a sex difference of 10–20% regarding the length of a running race. Although earlier studies assumed that would be able to outrun men in ultra-marathon running, the fastest men are ~17–20% faster than the fastest women for all ultra-marathon distances up to 3100 miles. Women can, however, reduce the gap to men in older age groups (i.e., 40–99 years). The sex difference depends in ultra-marathon running on the participation of women where the sex difference in running speed was largest when there were fewer women than men finishers in a race. The age of peak running performance is similar for women and men for shorter running races (10 km to marathon) but seems to be higher for women in ultra-marathons. The better performance in male runners compared to female runners can be explained by physiological differences (i.e., maximum oxygen uptake, running economy). Women will never outrun men in the future.