As a runner, have you ever wondered how men and women compare in their world records for everything from a 100-meter dash to a marathon and beyond?
A simple way to do this kind of comparison is to take each of the popular race distances, get the men’s world record time and the women’s world record time for that distance, and compare those two times to get a percentage advantage for a given distance. group against the other group for that distance.
Based on the latest statistics, mostly from the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations), here is how much world record holder men are faster than world record holder women. Each difference is calculated as 100% of the time (female duration minus male duration) divided by the female duration. For example, over the 100 meter distance, Usain Bolt’s world record is 9.50% faster than Florence Griffith-Joyner’s world record.
Initials: The letter “m” refers to meters (“metres”). The letter “K” refers to kilometers (“kilometres”). “10,000m” refers to track races; “10K” refers to road races.
- 9.50% in 100m: 9.58 (U. Bolt, 2009) vs. 10.49 (F. Griffith-Joyner, 1988)
- 11.20% in 200m: 19.19 (U. Bolt, 2009) vs. 21.34 (F. Griffith-Joyner, 1988)
- 10.24% in 400m: 43.18 (M. Johnson, 1999) vs. 47.60 (M. Koch, 1985)
- 12.04% in 800m: 1:41.11 (W. Kipketer, 1997) vs. 1:53.28 (J. Kratochvilova, 1983)
- 11.87% in 1500m: 3:26.00 (H. El Guerroujm 1998) vs. 3:50.46 (YQu, 1993)
- 13.19% in 1 mile: 3:43.13 (H. El Guerrouj, 1999) vs. 4:12.56 (S. Masterkova, 1996)
- 10.31% in 3000m: 7:20.67 (D. Komen, 1996) vs. 8:06.11 (J. Wang, 1993)
- 12.39% in 5000m: 12:37.35 (K. Bekele, 2004) vs. 14:11.15 (T. Dibaba, 2008)
- 12.31% in 10,000m:26:17.53 (K. Bekele, 2005) vs. 29:31.78 (J.Wang, 1993)
- 12.34% in 10K: 27:01 (MK Kogo, 2009) vs. 30:21 (P. Radcliffe, 2003)
- 12.01% on 15K: 41:29 (F.Limo, 2001) vs. 46.28 (T. Dibaba, 2009)
- 13.73% on 20K: 55:21 (Z. Tadese, 2010) vs. 1:02.57 (L. Kiplagat, 2007)
- 13.76% in Half Marathon: 58:23 (Z. Tadese, 2010) vs. 1:06:25 (L. Kiplagat, 2007)
- 11.21% on 25K: 1:11:50 (SK Kosgei, 2010) vs. 1:19.53 (M.J. Keitany, 2010)
- 12.53% on 30K: 1:27:49 (H. Gebrselassie, 2009) vs. 1:38.49 (M. Noguchi, 2005)
- 9.22% in Marathon: 2:03:59 (H. Gebrselassie, 2008) vs. 2:15:25 (P. Radcliffe, 2003)
- 5.26% on 100K: 6:13:33 (T. Sunada, 1998) vs. 6:33:11 (T.Abe, 2000)
Two interesting patterns are worth noting. First, most men’s records were set after most corresponding women’s records were set. Second, the three smallest differences are in the shortest distance (100m) and the two longest distances (marathon and 100km).