Saved analyses
Men's margin over women, Paris 2024 Olympic champions
Question: By what percentage did the men's Olympic champion beat the women's champion in each event at Paris 2024?
Result: Men's champions were 9.4-15.3% faster in running events, 18.0-27.6% better in jumps, and 6.8-12.4% faster in swimming.
Operation: For each event, compare the men's and women's gold-medal marks.
Scope: 12 athletics and 8 swimming events, Paris 2024.
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- One race per event; a single championship final reflects tactics and conditions as well as ability.
- Marathon and 10000m times reflect race tactics more than record pace.
Boys' margin over girls, Washington 2026 state finals
Question: In each comparable final at the 2026 Washington 2A, 3A and 4A state meet, how did the boys' champion and the boys' 8th-place finisher compare with the girls' champion?
Result: Boys' champions beat girls' champions by 7.8-45.8%. In all 28 finals with an 8th-place boys' mark, the 8th-place boy beat the girls' champion.
Operation: For each classification and event, compare the boys' 1st and 8th place marks with the girls' 1st place mark.
Scope: 2026 meet only: 10 events x 3 classifications.
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- One meet; weather and wind differ between boys' and girls' races.
- The fields are not the same size or depth in every classification.
Washington high-school boys vs. Olympic women's champions
Question: How many Washington 2A-4A boys' state finalists in 2026 bettered the Paris 2024 women's Olympic winning mark in the same event?
Result: 37 finals performances by Washington high-school boys beat the Olympic women's winning mark: 4 in the 100m, 4 in the 200m, 3 in the 400m, 20 in the 800m, 2 in the high jump, 1 in the pole vault and 3 in the long jump; none in the triple jump.
Operation: Count boys' finalist marks that beat the women's gold-medal mark in events run or jumped identically by both.
Scope: 2026 meet only: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, high jump, pole vault, long jump, triple jump.
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- High-school marks were set on a different day, track and wind than the Olympic finals.
- Hand-converted jump marks are compared to metric marks to the millimeter.
Male margin by event: Olympic vs. Washington 4A champions
Question: Is the male margin over females similar at the Olympics and at Washington's largest-school state meet?
Result: In both settings the male margin is about 10-18% in running and 18% or more in jumps.
Operation: Select the eight events common to both meets and pair each Olympic champion gap with the Washington 4A champion gap.
Scope: 8 events.
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- High-school pole vault and long jump gaps are inflated by a single outstanding boys' winner.
Male vs. female physical traits
Question: How large are sex differences in sport-relevant physical traits, and do they appear before puberty?
Result: Adult men have about 9% greater height, 57% more skeletal muscle, 64% stronger grip, 43% more hip bone mineral, 17% more hemoglobin and 28% higher aerobic capacity. Before puberty the measured differences are 0-7%.
Operation: Transcribe published male and female values and compute the percentage difference.
Scope: 18 measures from 8 sources.
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- Sources differ in era, country and age range; heart data are from adults aged 45-74.
- The Olympic reaction-time difference is probably mostly a starting-block sensor artifact, according to its authors; a 2015 laboratory study of 1,469 U.S. adults (Woods et al.) found simple reaction time unaffected by sex.
Boys' margin over girls, Washington state finals 2022-2026
Question: In each comparable final at the 2022-2026 Washington 2A, 3A and 4A state meets, how did the boys' champion compare with the girls' champion, and did the boys' 8th-place finisher beat the girls' champion?
Result: The boys' champion beat the girls' champion in 149 of 150 finals and tied once (2022 3A pole vault, both 14 feet 6 inches); the median margin was 17.6%. The 8th-place boy beat the girls' champion in 136 of 142 finals with an 8th-place mark.
Operation: For each year, classification and event, compare the boys' 1st and 8th place marks with the girls' 1st place mark.
Scope: 150 finals: 10 events x 3 classifications x 5 years.
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- Each meet is one weekend; weather and wind differ between boys' and girls' races.
- Field depth differs by classification and year; pole vault margins vary most because a few athletes decide them.
Washington champions' margin by event, 2022-2026, beside Paris 2024
Question: Across 15 finals per event (5 years x 3 classifications), how large is the boys' champions' margin over the girls' champions, and how does it compare with the Paris 2024 Olympic margin?
Result: Median high-school champion margins: 12.2% (100m), 14.4% (200m), 17.1% (400m), 16.6% (800m), 18.2% (1600m), 16.5% (3200m), 20.6% (high jump), 21.6% (pole vault), 24.1% (long jump), 20.5% (triple jump). They exceed the Olympic margins by 1-6 points in every shared event except the pole vault, where they are lower.
Operation: For each event, take the median, minimum and maximum of the 15 champion gaps and set the Paris 2024 champion gap beside it.
Scope: 10 events; Olympic comparison for the 8 events held at both.
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- High-school margins can be larger than Olympic ones when the girls' field is shallower; the comparison describes the difference and does not explain it.
Washington state finals 2022-2026 in summary
Question: Over five years of Washington 2A-4A state finals, how often did the boys' champion beat, tie or lose to the girls' champion, and how often did the 8th-place boy beat the girls' champion?
Result: Boys' champion better in 149 finals, tied in 1, worse in 0; median margin 17.6%; 8th-place boy beat the girls' champion in 136 of 142 finals.
Operation: Count the outcomes in wiaa-champion-gap-5yr.
Scope: 150 finals.
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- Counts treat every final equally regardless of field size.
Washington high-school boys vs. Olympic women's champions, by year
Question: In each year from 2022 to 2026, how many Washington 2A-4A boys' state finals performances bettered the Paris 2024 women's Olympic winning mark in the same event?
Result: Washington boys' finals performances that beat the Paris 2024 women's winning mark: 27 in 2022, 36 in 2023, 19 in 2024, 37 in 2025 and 37 in 2026, most of them in the 800m.
Operation: For each year and event, count boys' finalist marks better than the women's gold-medal mark.
Scope: 8 events x 5 years.
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- High-school marks were set on different days, tracks and winds than the Olympic finals.
U.S. national high-school records: boys' margin over girls
Question: By how much does each boys' U.S. national high-school record exceed the girls' record, and how does that compare with the Paris 2024 Olympic margin?
Result: Boys' records exceed girls' by 9.8% (100m), 14.9% (400m), 16.4% (800m), 12.9% (mile), 19.1% (high jump), 30.1% (pole vault), 19.2% (long jump) and 22.0% (triple jump), close to the Olympic margins of 9.5%, 11.0%, 15.3%, 18.0%, 27.6%, 19.4% and 18.9%.
Operation: For each event, compare the boys' and girls' record marks and set the Olympic champion gap beside it where the event was held in Paris.
Scope: 8 events.
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- Records were set in different years (2001-2025), meets and conditions.
- Some records were set at open, national or international meets while the athlete was in high school.
Boys' margin over girls in USA Swimming top standards, by age
Question: At each age from 10 to 18, how much faster is the boys' AAAA time standard than the girls', across all events?
Result: The median gap is 1.6% at age 10 and 1.4% at 11, then rises to 4.2% at 12, 6.3% at 13, 8.4% at 14, 9.3% at 15, 10.3% at 16, 10.9% at 17 and 12.1% at 18.
Operation: For each age, take the girls-to-boys gap in every event at the AAAA level and report the median, minimum and maximum, plus three freestyle events.
Scope: Ages 10-18; 35 events at age 10, 51-53 at ages 11-18.
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- Standards describe strong age-group swimmers, not all children.
- USA Swimming does not describe its method in the document used; the description of the base comes from secondary sources.
wiaa-2022-2026-finals.csv
text/csv · 101.7 KB (104,190 bytes)
