Penny Lee Dean remembers the cold vividly, even though it has been over 40 years.
Dean’s training was severe, as he prepared for a record-breaking swim across the English Channel, regardless of gender, in 1978. “Your hands and legs cramp,” she remembers. After her practice open-water swims, it would take her hours to feel warm again. A 20-minute hot shower wasn’t sufficient. Neither was a dip in a single hot tub; as soon as one became chilly, she would join another while holding a cup of tea.
While the cold was unbearable, she overcame it to become a record-breaking swimmer.
One benefit that women may have in this activity is the capacity to handle extreme cold, as their fat distribution aids in the regulation of body temperature in cold water. Dean feels that women have a greater tolerance for discomfort.
In truth, women can outperform or perform similarly to males in a variety of competitive events, including sport shooting and ultrarunning. However, the journey to greater inclusiveness has not been straightforward, and there are still more questions than answers about the role of sex in sports performance.
A tough comparison.
Øyvind Sandbakk, a professor of sports science at UiT, the Artic University of Norway, and the director of the Norwegian School of Elite Sports (NTG), discovered with colleagues that there were gaps in it.
