Male swimmers cross the English Channel faster than female swimmers

Abstract

We examined the gender difference in performance of open-water ultra-swimmers crossing the English Channel between 1875 and 2011. A total of 1606 swimmers (1120 males and 486 females) crossed the English Channel within a mean time of 809.6±175.6min. The overall female swim time of 796.3±188.7min was not different compared with the overall male swim time of 815.4±169.4min (P>0.05). The fastest male swim time ever of 417min was 6.7% faster than the fastest female swim time ever with 445min. The gender difference in performance of the top three times ever was 8.9±2.3%. Over the last 36 years, the performance of the annual top three swimmers showed no changes for both females and males. The top three males (564.3±63.8min) were significantly faster than the top three females (602.1±58.7min; P<0.01). The gender difference remained unchanged at 12.5±9.6% over the years. To summarize, the top three male swimmers in the English Channel were ~12% faster than the females in the last 36 years. It seems unlikely that female open-water ultra-swimmers will overtop males in the near future in the English Channel. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S.