title: Women outperform men in ultradistance swimming: the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim from 1983 to 2013.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recent studies suggested that women's and men's ultraswim performances may be similar for distances of ≈ 35 km. The current study investigated both the gender difference and the age of peak ultraswim performance between 1983 and 203 at the 46-km Manhattan Island Marathon Swim with water temperatures < 20°C.
  
  
  METHODS
  Changes in race times and gender difference in 551 male and 237 female finishers were investigated using linear-, nonlinear, and hierarchical multilevel-regression analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The top 19 race times ever were significantly (P < .0001) lower for women (371 ± 11 min) than for men (424 ± 9 min). Race times of the annual 3 fastest women and men did not differ between genders and remained stable across years. The age of the annual 3 fastest swimmers increased from 28 ± 4 y (1983) to 38 ± 6 y (2013; r² = .06, P = .03) in women and from 23 ± 4 y (1984) to 42 ± 8 y (2013; r² = .19, P < .0001 )in men.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The best women were ≈12 - 14% faster than the men in a 46-km open-water ultradistance race with temperatures < 20°C. The maturity of ultradistance swimmers has changed during the last decades, with the fastest swimmers becoming older across the years.
authors.forename: Beat
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Knechtle
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rosemann
authors.forename: Romuald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lepers
authors.forename: Christoph Alexander
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Rüst
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity; D000367:Age Factors; D003080:Cold Temperature; D003163:Competitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009518:New York; D010807:Physical Endurance / Q000502:physiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012737:Sex Factors; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology*