BIOMECHANICAL COMPARISON OF MALE AND FEMALE DISTANCE RUNNERS *

Interest in distance running among American girls and women has developed rapidly in recent years, This is evidenced by the increasing number of women participating in long distance races including the marathon. Many states have added girl’s championships to their cross country and track and field programs as a consequence of the interest being generated in the high schools. Concurrent with these developments has been the revitalization of women’s track and field and cross country teams in American colleges and universities. The increase in women’s running activities has stimulated many sport scientists to investigate the various aspects of female running performance. These research efforts have focused on the physiological, psychological, sociological, and to a lesser extent the biomechanical factors that influence performance. Studies 1 , of body size and proportions of female distance runners have revealed them to be shorter, lighter, and leaner than other female track and field athletes and females from the normal population focomparable ages. However, very little information is available about the biomechanical features of female distance runners. A direct outcome of the increased opportunities for women to participate under better coaching and improved training methods has been the marked improvement in their world record performances. The differences between male and female performances have been reduced steadily and this trend is expected to continue in the next few years. The current status of relative female performance in common running events can be seen in FIGURE 1. The male world records are represented by a value of 100 and the female records shown as percentages of the male record for the competitive events from 100 meters to the marathon. The female records are approximately 90% of the men’s with the exception of the 5,000 meters and marathon. The latter two events are very new to women’s competition, so the present differences will no doubt be reduced as greater numbers of female runners train for and compete in the events. The vast majority of the research conducted to date on the biomechanics of running has involved male subjects. Research on female runners has been limited primarily to the study of sprinters such as the work of H~f fman .~ Consequently, very little information is available on the biomechanics of female distance runners. This paucity of scientific data combined with the likelihood of increased emphasis on distance running among girls and women suggest that research directed toward a better understanding of the biomechanical aspects would be of both theoretical as well as practical significance.