Sex Differences in Performance and Performance-Determining Factors in the Olympic Winter Endurance Sports

Abstract

Background: Most sex comparisons in endurance sports have been derived from performance-matched groups of female and male athletes competing over similar distances within summer sports. Corresponding analyses of sex differences in winter endurance sports have not previously been conducted. In the Olympic Winter Games (OWG), the endurance sports include cross-country skiing (XCS), biathlon (BIA), Nordic combined (NC), ski mountaineering (SkiMo) and long-track speed skating (SpSk). The aim of this narrative review is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the sex differences in performance and performance-determining factors in the OWG endurance sports.

Main body: Sex differences in competition speeds are ~ 7-16% in XCS, 12-16% in BIA and 7-11% in SpSk, with race distances often shorter for women compared to men. No comparable data have been published for NC or SkiMo. Slower skiing speeds among women are associated with greater use of the diagonal and gear 2 sub-techniques in classic and skate skiing, respectively. In SpSk, slower skating speeds among women may be related to a less effective push-off being maintained throughout races. Laboratory data have revealed absolute and relative peak aerobic capacity to be 30-63% and 10-27% greater, respectively, in male versus female XCS, BIA, NC, SkiMo and SpSk athletes. There is limited evidence of sex differences in training characteristics, although women currently tend to complete more strength training than men in XCS and BIA. Of note, most data have been derived from studies performed in XCS, with almost no studies investigating sex differences in NC or SkiMo.

Conclusions: This review provides a comprehensive overview of sex differences in performance and performance-determining factors within and between OWG endurance sports, which provides a scientific basis for designing training programs and future studies. Due to the lack of research investigating sex differences in NC and SkiMo, these sports, in particular, would be worthy of further attention.

Key points: This narrative review provides a novel and comprehensive analysis of sex differences in performance and performance-determining factors in the Olympic winter endurance sports. Sex differences in competition speeds are ~ 7-16% in cross-country skiing, biathlon and speed skating, while no comparable data were available for Nordic combined or ski mountaineering. Since men have historically skied and skated over greater distances than women in cross-country skiing, biathlon and speed skating competitions, the "true" sex differences in performance are likely larger than the differences reported in the literature, therefore exceeding the differences typically reported for summer endurance sports. Most information about sex differences in Olympic winter endurance sports is based on studies performed in cross-country skiing. The conspicuous lack of information on Nordic combined and ski mountaineering warrants further research in these sports.

Keywords: Biathlon; Cross-country skiing; Gender; Nordic combined; Ski mountaineering; Speed skating.

Fig. 1

The distribution of winter Olympic endurance sports featured in the 62 studies included in this narrative review

Fig. 2

Overview of sex differences in relative and absolute peak oxygen uptake (VO_2peak) values derived from 24 studies of cross-country skiing (XCS) [, , , , , , –, , , , –90], six studies of biathlon (BIA) [, –76], two studies of Nordic combined (NC) [72, 82], one study of ski mountaineering (SkiMo) [76] and five studies of long-track speed skating (SpSk) [–63, 77]. Studies are organized by sport, athlete tier level, athlete specialization (dis: distance; sp: sprint), exercise mode (run: running; cy: cycling; DIA: diagonal stride; G2: gear 2; G3: gear 3; DP: double poling; upDP: upper-body double poling; NR: no rifle; WR: with rifle) and test protocol (INC: incremental protocol; TT: time trial)