Sports
Do Super Shoes Benefit Women More Than Men?
Studies show superior time gains for female runners using carbon-plated shoes, outpacing male averages across the marathon distance.
Scientific research indicates that carbon-plated super shoes provide greater performance gains for women than for men. While male runners cut under three minutes off their marathon times on average, female times drop by more than four minutes.
The super shoe revolution has transformed global track and field and road racing in recent years, but the impact of responsive foam and carbon-plate technology might not be equal for everyone. Recent data and scientific surveys show that women are experiencing even more significant percentage and absolute benefits than men when lacing up high-performance footwear.
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The Difference in Numbers and Studies
As discussed on Radar Stemma, surveys comparing athlete performance before and after the introduction of carbon plates reveal an intriguing disparity. Across specific analyzed metrics and distances, improvement rates reach 4.51% among female runners, compared to 2.62% for men. Earlier research published in the prestigious Journal of Applied Physiology had already highlighted a similar trend, showing average performance gains of around 2.6% for women versus 2.0% for men.
What Does This Mean in Marathon Practice?
When these percentages are translated to the road across a full 26.2-mile marathon, the difference becomes crystal clear on the clock. The average time reduction for men sits around 2 minutes and 48 seconds, while for women, the average cut reaches an impressive 4 minutes and 18 seconds.
Although the exact biomechanics and factors such as shoe weight and baseline pace remain topics of debate among experts, the data proves that technological advancements have boosted women's long-distance running records to an unprecedented degree.
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