Barcelona“Women do better in sports, because progression is better.” Flat and short. For Jaume Nualart, this conclusion is clear after conducting a study on the evolution of world records in athletics. “If we look at the progression, in most disciplines women have lowered marks more than men. Sometimes even double,” says Nualart, PhD I researcher and teacher. Despite entering the Olympic world much later, women have managed to radically improve their records. Practically, in half the time they have cut twice the time on the timer. At the Tokyo Olympics, where athletics has just begun, the marks tremble in front of the great athletes, both men and women, who have a new milestone between the eyebrows.
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Just under a hundred years ago, at the Paris Games of 1924, women began to compete in athletics. The irruption of women in this sport began marked by an initial amateurism. This lack of professionalism is one of the main reasons that led the first athletes to make some marks that we could consider bad. Then, however, the improvement has been abysmal. “Women’s records start counting down later; so there’s a gap, and they start with a mark that’s worse. But as happened with men, when they started they had much lower marks. Women they have much more room for improvement, ”Nualart argues after analyzing different athletic disciplines in perspective and verifying that this pattern is repeated in most tests.
The study carried out by Jaume Nualart shows that, in most disciplines, athletes have managed to reduce marks much faster than male athletes. If we pay attention to the records of each test, the numbers are clear. In the 100 meters, the quintessential test of athletics, women, in 66 years of records, have managed to break the world record by 2.57 seconds, while men have only reduced it by 1.22 seconds. For now, while they are still far from the exceptional record set by Florence Griffith with a time of 10.49 seconds, up to six athletes place their marks below 11 seconds.
So far, in four more tests it has been corroborated that the progression of women is greater than that of men: the 1,500 meters, the 10,000 meters, the marathon and the high jump. In all the cases studied, we can see how women have seen an exceptional drop in marks, while in the case of men, despite having much lower records, the progression has been much smaller and more gradual.
The struggle to be there
Breaking records, hanging medals, climbing the highest step of the podium, lifting trophies and appearing in history books – this is what any athlete dreams of. Both men and women, the goal is the same. The conditions are similar for everyone, but the difficulties of being there have not been the same. Women, despite having more obstacles to overcome, have managed to reach and consolidate themselves in the Olympics in addition to breaking records with great authority.
The first Games, held at the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia in Greece, were created and designed by men. Not only were they the protagonists, but the only ones who could enjoy them: women were forbidden to enter because they were considered inferior. You don’t have to look far back to see that, although the presence of women in the stands was normalizing, stepping on the track was still unthinkable. As the years have passed, and thanks to constant effort and struggle, the walls have been torn down. In this sense, the Paris Games of 1900 marked an era: they were the first in which women could participate. From there, each Olympic cycle opened the door to the possibility of new athletes taking a place in the world event until they reached Tokyo, the most equal games in history (49% female participation). It is true, however, that each sport has shown a different resistance to change. Golf, tennis and sailing began the same path in 1900. But athletics did not admit women in some events until 1924, during the second Olympic event in the French capital.
In Tokyo, athletics is already underway. After a first day longed for by millions of athletes and fans, we have already had the first taste that has allowed us to see what level the big favorites reach. Jamaicans Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (queen of speed in Beijing and London) and Elaine Thompson (current Olympic champion) are the athletes to beat in the star event. Not even two months ago Fraser ran the 100 meters in Kingston in 10.63 seconds, the second best mark in history, just 14 hundredths of a world record. In the final stages of the coming days and the final of the 100 meters that will be played this Saturday (14:50 h), Tokyo can be the stage that confirms the rule and that another women’s record falls into the sack.
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