U.S. national high-school records: boys' margin over girls

What this dataset measures

Running, jumping and swimming events are contested identically by both sexes, so marks can be compared directly. Five years of Washington state finals show the gap among high-school athletes in the state where the girls' sports initiative IL26-638 is on the ballot, without depending on one meet. U.S. national high-school records show the best boy against the best girl nationally. USA Swimming's single-age standards show how the gap develops from age 10 to 18. 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

Supporting files

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

• analyses.json Derived table · application/json · 68.7 KB (70,347 bytes)

  Results of every saved analysis: version 1 results (olyGap, wiaaGap, h2h, chartRows, traits) unchanged, plus wiaaGap5, wiaaByEvent, wiaaSummary5, h2h5, usRecordGap and swimAgeGap, as computed by build-v2.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).

• build-v2.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 7.6 KB (7,792 bytes)

  Node.js script that writes the version 2 tables and computes every new saved-analysis result from the parsed WIAA finals and swimming standards.

• parse-multi.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 2.8 KB (2,889 bytes)

  Node.js script that reads places 1-8 of each comparable final from pdftext.js output of the WIAA results PDFs, handling the three printout layouts used in 2022-2026.

• parse-swim.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 1.3 KB (1,323 bytes)

  Node.js script that reads the USA Swimming single-age standards from pdftotext -raw output.

• check-aquatics.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 915 bytes

  Node.js script that reads each Paris 2024 freestyle and backstroke final from the World Aquatics results service and prints the winning time.

Saved analyses

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 checked all 24 winning marks in the paris-winners table (12 events, men and women) against the final result pages on 2026-10-12, and all matched.

   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

14. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Official results of the 2022 State 2A-3A-4A Track and Field Championships.

    Retrieved October 12, 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 12, 2026

15. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Official results of the 2023 State 2A-3A-4A Track and Field Championships.

    Retrieved October 12, 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 12, 2026

16. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Official results of the 2024 State 2A-3A-4A Track and Field Championships.

    Retrieved October 12, 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 12, 2026

17. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Official results of the 2025 State 2A-3A-4A Track and Field Championships.

    Retrieved October 12, 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 12, 2026

18. World Aquatics Official results service of the swimming governing body: the Paris 2024 event list, from which each final's result is read at /fina/events/{id}. FactHub checked all 16 swimming winning times in the paris-winners table against it on 2026-10-12, and all matched.

    Retrieved October 12, 2026. World Aquatics website terms. Marks are facts; linked, not redistributed.

    Archived copy captured October 12, 2026

19. USA Swimming USA Swimming 2024-2028 Single Age Motivational Standards: time standards (B to AAAA) for girls and boys at each age from 10 to 18, in every event and course; linked from usaswimming.org/times/time-standards.

    Retrieved October 12, 2026. USA Swimming publication; no license stated. Time standards are factual cut times; FactHub republishes the times with its computed gap.

    Archived copy captured October 12, 2026

20. Wikipedia Compiled list of outdoor U.S. high-school national records with athlete, school, meet and date, citing meet results and news reports.

    Retrieved October 12, 2026. CC BY-SA 4.0. Marks are facts; transcribed values only.

    Archived copy captured October 12, 2026

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible: The five WIAA results PDFs and the USA Swimming standards PDF are archived and digested. pdftext.js and parse-multi.js extract every Washington finals mark; pdftotext -raw (Poppler) and parse-swim.js extract the swimming standards; build-v2.js writes every table and saved-analysis result, carrying version 1 results over unchanged. check-aquatics.js reads the Paris swimming winners from the World Aquatics results service. U.S. records 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.
• Washington finals are compared within each year's meet; the five meets differ in weather and in the depth of each field.
• U.S. high-school records come from a Wikipedia compilation, not the National Federation of State High School Associations record book, and include marks set at open, national and international meets.
• USA Swimming does not state its method for the motivational standards in the document used; secondary sources say each level is a fixed percentage slower than a base taken from recent national 16th-place times. FactHub therefore treats the standards as a measure of the gap among strong age-group swimmers, not all swimmers, and analyzes only the fastest (AAAA) level.