Knechtle Beat, Rosemann Thomas, Rüst Christoph Alexander
Gesundheitszentrum St. Gallen, Vadianstrasse 26, 9001 St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Institute of Primary Care, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Springerplus. 2015 Jul 8;4:332. doi: 10.1186/s40064-015-1086-4. eCollection 2015.
Open-water ultra-distance swimming has a long history where the 'English Channel' (~33 km) was crossed in 1875 for the first time. Nowadays, the three most challenging open-water swims worldwide are the 21-miles (34 km) 'English Channel Swim', the 20.1-miles (32.2 km) 'Catalina Channel Swim' and the 28.5-miles (45.9 km) 'Manhattan Island Marathon Swim', also called the 'Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming'. Recent studies showed that women were able to achieve men's performance in the 'English Channel Swim' or to even outperform men in the 'Manhattan Island Marathon Swim'. However, the analysis of the 'Catalina Channel Swim' as part of the 'Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming' is missing. We investigated performance and sex difference in performance for successful women and men crossing the 'Catalina Channel' between 1927 and 2014. The fastest woman ever was ~22 min faster than the fastest man ever. Although the three fastest women ever were ~20 min faster than the three fastest men ever, the difference reached not statistical significance (p > 0.05). Similarly for the ten fastest ever, the ~1 min difference for women was not significant (p > 0.05). However, when the swimming times of the annual fastest women (n = 39) and the annual fastest men (n = 50) competing between 1927 and 2014 were compared, women (651 ± 173 min) were 52.9 min (16 ± 12%) faster than men (704 ± 279 min) (p < 0.0001). Across years, swimming times decreased non-linearly in the annual fastest men (polynomial 2nd degree) and women (polynomial 3rd degree) whereas the sex difference decreased linearly from 52.4% (1927) to 7.1% (2014). In summary, the annual fastest women crossed the 'Catalina Channel' faster than the annual fastest men. The non-linear decrease in swimming times suggests that female and male swimmers have reached a limit in this event. However, the linear decrease in the sex difference may indicate that women continuously narrow the gap to men.
公开水域超长距离游泳有着悠久的历史，1875年首次有人成功横渡英吉利海峡（约33公里）。如今，全球最具挑战性的三项公开水域游泳赛事分别是21英里（34公里）的“英吉利海峡游泳赛”、20.1英里（32.2公里）的“卡特琳娜海峡游泳赛”以及28.5英里（45.9公里）的“曼哈顿岛马拉松游泳赛”，这三项赛事也被称作“公开水域游泳的三冠王”。最近的研究表明，在“英吉利海峡游泳赛”中女性能够达到男性的水平，甚至在“曼哈顿岛马拉松游泳赛”中表现优于男性。然而，作为“公开水域游泳三冠王”一部分的“卡特琳娜海峡游泳赛”的分析却缺失。我们调查了1927年至2014年间成功横渡“卡特琳娜海峡”的男女选手的表现及表现上的性别差异。有史以来最快的女性比有史以来最快的男性快约22分钟。尽管有史以来最快的三名女性比有史以来最快的三名男性快约20分钟，但差异未达到统计学显著性（p>0.05）。同样，对于有史以来最快的十名选手，女性快约1分钟的差异也不显著（p>0.05）。然而，当比较1927年至2014年间每年最快的女性（n = 39）和每年最快的男性（n = 50）的游泳时间时，女性（651±173分钟）比男性（704±279分钟）快52.9分钟（16±12%）（p<0.0001）。多年来，每年最快的男性（二次多项式）和女性（三次多项式）的游泳时间呈非线性下降，而性别差异从1927年的52.4%线性下降至2014年的7.1%。总之，每年最快的女性横渡“卡特琳娜海峡”的速度比每年最快的男性快。游泳时间的非线性下降表明男女游泳选手在这项赛事中已达到极限。然而，性别差异的线性下降可能表明女性在不断缩小与男性的差距。
