Sport-relevant physical traits by sex

What this dataset measures

Running, jumping and swimming events are contested identically by both sexes, so marks can be compared directly. The Washington state meet shows the gap among high-school athletes in the state where the girls' sports initiative IL26-638 is on the ballot; the Olympics show it among the best adults in the world. Physical-trait data come from large government surveys and peer-reviewed studies.

Geography

Washington, United States, International

Unit of observation

Event mark or trait measure

Update cadence

One-time release; may be extended with later championships.

Curator

FactHub Editorial Team

Curated data tables

Sport-relevant physical traits by sex

Male and female values for height, muscle mass, grip strength, bone, hemoglobin, heart size, aerobic capacity and sprint-start reaction time, transcribed from the cited studies and government reports.

Unit of observation: One trait measure in one age group

physical-traits.csv text/csv · 1.4 KB (1,445 bytes)

All 18 rows 8 columns Download the file

All 18 rows

trait	measure	ages	male see unit	female see unit	unit	maleVsFemalePct percent	sourceId
Height	Mean standing height	20+	175.3	161.3	cm	8.7	nhanes-anthro
Height	Mean standing height	12	154.2	154.8	cm	-0.4	nhanes-anthro
Height	Mean standing height	17	175.2	163	cm	7.5	nhanes-anthro
Skeletal muscle mass	Whole-body skeletal muscle (MRI)	18-88	33	21	kg	57.1	janssen-2000
Grip strength	Mean maximum grip	10	17.2	16.7	kg	3	dodds-2014
Grip strength	Mean maximum grip	15	29.6	23.9	kg	23.8	dodds-2014
Grip strength	Mean maximum grip	30	51.6	31.4	kg	64.3	dodds-2014
Bone	Total hip bone mineral content (DXA)	8-11	18.15	16.98	g	6.9	nhanes-bone
Bone	Total hip bone mineral content (DXA)	16-19	43.36	30.05	g	44.3	nhanes-bone
Bone	Total hip bone mineral content (DXA)	20-29	43.72	30.48	g	43.4	nhanes-bone
Bone	Total hip bone mineral density (DXA)	20-29	1.081	0.973	g/cm2	11.1	nhanes-bone
Hemoglobin	Mean blood hemoglobin	9-11	132.8	131	g/L	1.4	nhanes-hemoglobin
Hemoglobin	Mean blood hemoglobin	15-19	150.7	131.5	g/L	14.6	nhanes-hemoglobin
Hemoglobin	Mean blood hemoglobin	20-29	154.1	131.4	g/L	17.3	nhanes-hemoglobin
Heart	Left ventricular mass (cardiac MRI)	45-74	103	70	g	47.1	petersen-2017
Heart	Left ventricular stroke volume (cardiac MRI)	45-74	96	75	mL	28	petersen-2017
Aerobic capacity	Median VO2max (treadmill)	20-29	48	37.6	mL/kg/min	27.7	friend-2015
Reaction time	Mean sprint-start reaction time, Beijing 2008 (lower is faster)	Olympic sprinters	166	189	ms	13.9	lipps-2011

8 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
trait	string	Trait.	—	observed
measure	string	Exact measure reported by the source.	—	observed
ages	string	Age group in years (or population).	—	observed
male	number	Male value.	see unit	observed
female	number	Female value.	see unit	observed
unit	string	Unit of male and female.	—	observed
maleVsFemalePct	number	How much higher the male value is than the female value, in percent. For reaction time (lower is better) it is how much slower the female value is.	percent	derived
sourceId	string	Id of the source in this dataset.	—	observed

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• analyses.json Derived table · application/json · 19.2 KB (19,659 bytes)

  Results of every saved analysis (olyGap, wiaaGap, h2h, chartRows, traits), as computed by build.js.

• build.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 8.9 KB (9,128 bytes)

  Node.js script that parses the extracted WIAA results text, writes the three CSV tables, and computes every saved-analysis result.

• pdftext.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 1.3 KB (1,364 bytes)

  Node.js script used to extract text from the WIAA results PDF (inflates the PDF content streams and prints the text operators).

Sources

1. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Official results of the 2026 State 2A-3A-4A Track and Field Championships, Mount Tahoma Stadium, Tacoma, May 28-30, 2026 (Hy-Tek Meet Manager printout, linked from wiaa.com Track & Field Past Results).

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Factual results published by WIAA; no license stated. Marks are facts; FactHub republishes places and marks only, without athlete names or schools.

   Archived copy captured October 11, 2026

2. World Athletics Official Paris 2024 athletics results by discipline; each final links to its result page. FactHub spot-checked the women's 400m and 800m and men's pole vault finals against it.

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. World Athletics website terms. Marks are facts; linked, not redistributed.

   Archived copy captured October 11, 2026

3. Wikipedia Compiled medal summary for all Paris 2024 athletics events, used to transcribe gold-medal marks.

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. CC BY-SA 4.0. Marks are facts; transcribed values only.

   Archived copy captured October 11, 2026

4. Wikipedia Compiled medal summary for Paris 2024 pool swimming events, used to transcribe gold-medal times.

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. CC BY-SA 4.0. Marks are facts; transcribed values only.

   Archived copy captured October 11, 2026

5. CDC National Center for Health Statistics Fryar CD et al. Anthropometric reference data for children and adults: United States, 2015-2018. Vital Health Stat 3(46), 2021. Mean standing height by sex and age.

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

   Archived copy captured October 11, 2026

6. Janssen I, Heymsfield SB, Wang ZM, Ross R (2000) Skeletal muscle mass and distribution in 468 men and women aged 18-88 yr, measured by whole-body MRI. J Appl Physiol 89:81-88.

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Publisher copyright (American Physiological Society). Values cited from the abstract; not redistributed.

7. Dodds RM et al. (2014) Grip strength across the life course: normative data from twelve British studies (49,964 participants). PLoS One 9:e113637, Table 2.

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. CC BY 4.0. Redistributable with attribution.

   Archived copy captured October 11, 2026

8. CDC National Center for Health Statistics Looker AC et al. Lumbar spine and proximal femur bone mineral density, bone mineral content, and bone area: United States, 2005-2008. Vital Health Stat 11(251), 2012; total femur tables.

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

   Archived copy captured October 11, 2026

9. CDC National Center for Health Statistics Hollowell JG et al. Hematological and iron-related analytes: reference data for persons aged 1 year and over, United States, 1988-94. Vital Health Stat 11(247), 2005; Tables 2-3.

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted.

   Archived copy captured October 11, 2026

10. Petersen SE et al. (2017) Reference ranges for cardiac structure and function using cardiovascular magnetic resonance in Caucasians from the UK Biobank (n=804). J Cardiovasc Magn Reson 19:18.

    Retrieved October 10, 2026. CC BY 4.0. Redistributable with attribution.

    Archived copy captured October 11, 2026

11. Kaminsky LA et al. (2015) Reference standards for cardiorespiratory fitness measured with cardiopulmonary exercise testing: data from the FRIEND registry (7,783 U.S. treadmill tests). Mayo Clin Proc 90:1515.

    Retrieved October 10, 2026. Publisher copyright; author manuscript in PMC. Values cited; not redistributed.

    Archived copy captured October 11, 2026

12. Lipps DB, Galecki AT, Ashton-Miller JA (2011) On the implications of a sex difference in the reaction times of sprinters at the Beijing Olympics. PLoS One 6:e26141.

    Retrieved October 10, 2026. CC BY. Redistributable with attribution.

    Archived copy captured October 11, 2026

13. Woods DL et al. (2015) Factors influencing the latency of simple reaction time (1,469 U.S. adults, precisely timed hardware). Front Hum Neurosci 9:131. Reports simple reaction time unaffected by sex.

    Retrieved October 10, 2026. CC BY 4.0. Redistributable with attribution.

    Archived copy captured October 11, 2026

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible: The WIAA PDF is archived and digested; build.js and pdftext.js regenerate every table and saved analysis from it. Olympic and trait values are transcribed from the linked sources.

• Only events contested identically by both sexes are compared; hurdles and throws are excluded.
• No athlete in these tables is known to be using hormone treatment. Olympians are drug-tested; high-school athletes are not routinely tested.
• Marks from a single meet are affected by wind, weather and tactics.
• Trait data come from different populations and years and are not from athletes.