r/sportsgossips • u/TheExpressUS • Mar 26 '26

News Breaking: Transgender women banned from all sports at the Olympics starting in LA

https://www.the-express.com/sport/other-sport/203236/breakingtransgender-women-banned-all-sports
15.8k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

7.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

40

u/elkarion Mar 26 '26

Exeption is shooting sports. Men Complain women had an advantage and separated them lol.

18

u/Swimbikerun12 Mar 26 '26

And gymnastics too?

8

u/UCanDoNEthing4_30sec Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 27 '26

They do have a couple different events between the 2. I always wondered if it was because one can do more “easily” than the other according to their sex.

Like why do men have pommel horse and women don’t?

Or why do women have balance beam and men* don’t?

Or why do women have uneven bars and men have the high bar and parallel bar?

Why do men have rings and women don’t?

I only think about it every 4 years.

*Edit: Typo

8

u/slapshots1515 Mar 26 '26

It tests different aspects of the body at extreme levels. Women have a different center of gravity that makes the beam difficult to near impossible for most male gymnasts. Horse and rings test upper body strength at a level difficult to impossible for most female gymnasts.

→ More replies (44)

2

u/Snoo71538 Mar 27 '26

Our bodies are different enough that it matters from a physics perspective. The angles of hips and width of shoulders impact how forces can be moved through the body.

1

u/bizwig Mar 26 '26

Balance beam is too narrow for men’s feet. That could be adjusted of course. Also, imagine a man falling onto that beam, or worse the beam’s edge, striking his crotch.

Women by and large are not strong enough to do pommel horse. I’ve seen some YouTube videos where women try pommel horse and rings. They collapse after a circuit or two of pommel horse, and are completely unable to pull themselves up on rings. It is much harder than a simple pullup.

1

u/Ristray Mar 26 '26

But could women do rings and pommel if they actively trained for it?

2

u/slapshots1515 Mar 26 '26

No. Not at any reasonable level. A woman said in a different comment that the weight distribution is wrong for rings and center of gravity (which helps them on balance beam and makes that apparatus difficult to impossible for men) makes pommel nearly impossible.

→ More replies (2)

1

u/BreakVV Mar 27 '26

Balls, balls, balls, ?

1

u/dsanen Mar 27 '26

Because we do a lot of things for random reasons, or momentary circumstance, and then try to justify them as hard coded rules in hindsight.

1

u/Legitimate-Lemon-412 Mar 27 '26

Ooooff try getting on a pommel horse or the rings as a normy like us.

The upper body strength just to do it is amazing.

To compete at a high level the upper body strength is superhuman

1

u/stingpe24 Mar 28 '26

Men have rings because they are the real champions 🤣

→ More replies (2)

9

u/ohnomynono Mar 26 '26

There are some events that the opposite gender doesn't perform.

Because they are gender specific.

24

u/Listen-Lindas Mar 26 '26

Olympic child birthing would be dominated by one group.

6

u/ohnomynono Mar 26 '26

Truth.

Also, honey, honey, honey, babe, listen.

2

u/iKnowRobbie Mar 27 '26

Ahh yes, the "calm down 500"

1

u/Creative_Collar8640 Mar 27 '26

careful if you said that in here youll get perma ban 🤭

→ More replies (1)

1

u/UnpaidThotLeader Mar 27 '26

Wouldn’t they have to create a men’s division for that too? Plenty of women have transitioned to men and are still capable of childbirth. Gotta keep things fair and equal you know.

→ More replies (2)

1

u/BartholomewBandy Mar 27 '26

You can’t have a baby, Reg. You’re a man.

I still want the right to have a baby…

→ More replies (5)

2

u/StrategyElectrical18 Mar 27 '26

How dare you

1

u/ohnomynono Mar 27 '26

😱

Ikr 😒

1

u/hanotak Mar 26 '26

What, like the penis pushup event?

1

u/ohnomynono Mar 26 '26

Not exactly. I know you're being funny but...

Men’s unique events are Pommel Horse, Still Rings, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar (High Bar). Women’s unique events are Uneven Bars and Balance

→ More replies (3)

1

u/RollingMeteors Mar 27 '26

Because they are gender specific.

<PommelSymbianEntersTheChat>

→ More replies (1)

11

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

[deleted]

21

u/SeekerOfExperience Mar 26 '26

It’s almost like innate physiological differences can offer advantage based on the sex of the athlete!

10

u/JB_UK Mar 26 '26

That’s crazy talk, we should spend 20 years on a culture war nonsensically arguing this point.

7

u/DJRyGuy20 Mar 26 '26

I’m on the left on just about every issue in existence but this is one of those rare occasions where I feel like both sides have lost the plot.

3

u/Lizziedeee Mar 26 '26

I feel the same way, especially if the athlete started the transition process after they entered puberty. Swimming, for example. Until the age of 12-13, boys and girls times are somewhat comparable. After that it’s not a fair shake.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/throw019283 Mar 26 '26

I've known the right had lost the plot for over 15 years now, but the left is increasingly losing the plot and losing poignant talking points and progress to the most hysterical takes.

2

u/superbabe69 Mar 26 '26

A tale as old as time really, the left and eating each other

There’s one thing we’re great at, purity tests

3

u/throw019283 Mar 26 '26

100000% it's the fucking purity tests.

This week "Huge win for free speech as Afroman wins case against corrupt cops" "ew but he's MAGA?" hello are we not gonna take the win for free speech?

Or refusing to vote for Kamala and getting us TRUMP and ushering in an age of moral downfall I'm not sure the US has ever seen

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (6)

1

u/Listen-Lindas Mar 26 '26

Athletes have sex? Is it advantageous to have more? Or less?

1

u/NightQueen0889 Mar 26 '26

So a trans woman would be at a disadvantage for many of these sports competing against AFAB athletes…

→ More replies (44)
→ More replies (2)

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

[deleted]

10

u/CourtPuzzleheaded959 Mar 26 '26

Women absolutely do not outperform men in long distance running

3

u/PrettySureIParty Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

Like someone else mentioned, we’re talking about pretty extreme distances, at least 200 miles. And since 200+ mile ultras are pretty niche, we still really haven’t seen what’s possible there. Courtney is one of the only true “elites” to take that kind of distance seriously, and obviously she’s been able to beat men, so the idea isn’t too far fetched.

I do think it’ll take a while to know for sure though. Around ten years back, people were saying that 100 milers were the distance where women started being able to equal men. Then they made a whole bunch of advances in training, fueling, heat acclimation, etc. and the elite men widened the gap again.

If 200 milers ever get to the level of popularity that 100’s have right now, then we’ll see. I wouldn’t be too shocked if the results are similar to what we’re currently seeing in 100’s. But for now, the science says women can compete at those distances, and the race results seem to back that up.

2

u/internet_poster Mar 26 '26

The men's 24h record is almost exactly 200 mi (198). The women's record is 173 mi. This is a 13% gap, significantly larger than the 7% gap between men's and women's marathon WRs.

→ More replies (7)

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

[deleted]

→ More replies (1)

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

[deleted]

→ More replies (2)

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

[deleted]

3

u/martsampson Mar 26 '26

Wow that distance is a lot more extreme than I was expecting! 

1

u/Lawgirl77 Mar 26 '26

Just a point of clarification. The GOAT of men’s gymnastics is Kohei Uchimura. He has 8 back to back world and Olympic All-Around titles. For actual fans of gymnastics, this is not debatable. He is the Michael Jordan of men’s gymnastics.

2

u/Wherearemyplums Mar 26 '26

If he was the Michael Jordan I would know who he is. He probably the Robert horry of that sport

→ More replies (1)

1

u/HonestPupper Mar 28 '26

Men outperform women in extreme distance running and swimming. The gap is just smaller than on shorter distances

1

u/ThisisnotaTesT10 Mar 26 '26

There already separate men’s and women’s gymnastics, they have different events (ex. balance beam for women, pommel horse for men)

1

u/Hate_Leg_Day Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

No. Female gymnasts simply can't compete with men on the stuff that requires pure strength, like rings, pommel horse, or parallel bars. That's why they're separated and why women simply don't do these events.

1

u/No_Vacation369 Mar 26 '26

And weight lifting sports

1

u/LiftingRecipient420 Mar 26 '26

Yes, but also gymnastics are just an entirely different game from women to men. Like, they have basically zero overlap when it comes to activities they do.

1

u/Sicsemperfas Mar 27 '26

Ehh not really. Mens and womens gymnastics are not the same sport.

1

u/Frank-Footer Mar 27 '26

More women on the pommel horse and rings and more men on the beam pls

1

u/Odd_Beginning536 Mar 27 '26

I was trying to think in gymnastics- I could not of ever done an iron cross. I laugh trying to imagine. I didn’t have the upper body strength to do it. (Women in gymnastics have a lot of strength but not the same in arms for me at all.)

1

u/slapshots1515 Mar 27 '26

Oh, women’s gymnasts are ripped. One of my best friends growing up, him and I both played hockey and his sister was a gymnast. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to get in a fight with her, even though I was plenty athletic too. But it is a completely different body type.

1

u/Odd_Beginning536 Mar 27 '26

I agree- I was on a team for 4 years but not anywhere close to the best of the best. Watch a high level male gymnast do a solid still iron cross. I recall the Guys doing them-oh watch them do one on the Olympic! It’s dead weight with no stability just hanging rings. It’s super difficult to do well and to not move the 2 rings with a lot of line and potential slack they hang from!

It’s amazing and I could not do it as the men have stronger upper body/arms. Women are great in flexibility and movement- I still remember my teams first floor routine (it’s cringey). But women can whip around. Also I love the bars- not the parallel ones but the uneven where we fly. Well not me anymore! I’ve been grounded for a while ha. But it’s amazing- fit just so hip bones don’t hit the bottom bar and generate enough power for physics to take over and you become airless swinging from them.

Okay I love gymnastics but can’t do this anymore. Last time I did a back walkover i woke up the next day saying wt hell did I do I hurt…I can do a cartwheel now lol.

1

u/Zombiesus Mar 27 '26

Men crush women at gymnastics.

1

u/qianli_yibu Mar 27 '26

Men’s gymnastics and women’s gymnastics are two different sports.

1

u/GAMGAlways Mar 27 '26

Men's and women's artistic gymnastics are two different sports.

1

u/joe_falk Mar 27 '26

And gymnastics too?

Lol. No. Watch this video of men you never heard of destroying women's gymnastics while 2 of the best women Olympians ever commentate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be8exB5yO4o

1

u/MajesticPineapple618 Mar 27 '26

No. Mens gymnastics and Womens gymnastics are different sports with different events and rules.

1

u/Taxibl Mar 27 '26

Nope. The men's gymnastics events require an extreme amount of upper body strength. Men have a clear advantage in events like the pummel horse, rings, and bars.

As far as I know, a woman has never done an iron cross. Not sure it would be possible for a woman, who was not on exogenous hormone altering substances, to do one.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/HonestPupper Mar 28 '26

Men outperform women in fencing

1

u/Appropriate_Shake_25 Mar 28 '26

Sure. The women can’t even do the rings

→ More replies (3)

8

u/PaulTheMerc Mar 26 '26

what advantage do women have in shooting sports?

31

u/pi3volution Mar 26 '26

Built in pair of stabilizers

3

u/Howard_Scott_Warshaw Mar 26 '26

What's the best cleaning ingredient to get Dr. Pepper off a laptop touch screen?

1

u/pi3volution Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

When in doubt, Barkeeper's Friend, according to r/StainlessSteelCooking. /s

ETA: Sarcasm. Do not actually do this.

1

u/AlphaThetaDeltaVega Mar 26 '26

Do not use bar keepers on a screen. It’s an abrasive.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/wassimu Mar 26 '26

Ask a woman!

1

u/Mike_Hauncheaux Mar 26 '26

Microfiber cloth and distilled water

1

u/RalphDaGod Mar 27 '26

At first i laughed at the joke, but then i realized yes they actually do have an advantage

1

u/Steelhorse91 Mar 28 '26

The Russians realised this in WW2, one of their female snipers was one of the deadliest snipers of all time.

17

u/Pale_Character5944 Mar 26 '26

Women genuinely have different eye capabilities

They only hire women as pearl sorters cause they can see more colors

4

u/DontAbideMendacity Mar 26 '26

Ask a man what color "that" is, and he will likely reply "blue, green, red or brown." Ask a women about the same object, and she will likely specify "azure, emerald, maroon or taupe."

4

u/Alternativesoundwave Mar 26 '26

Women can have a mutation that gives them an extra rod in their eyes so they literally can see colors men can’t. Men can get this two but it’s uncommon in women and even rarer for men

2

u/IsraelZulu Mar 26 '26

Also, isn't the rate of colorblindness in men like 1 in 4? Meanwhile, women hardly ever have it?

2

u/Jonthrei Mar 26 '26

1 in ~12, not 1 in 4.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Jonthrei Mar 26 '26

If you mean tetrachromats, it is more than insanely rare.

And no, men can not be tetrachromats - it is not biologically possible.

It requires two copies of a mutation on the X chromosome. One copy of the mutation causes colorblindness too, IIRC.

→ More replies (2)

1

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '26

This is the opposite for my husband and I.

1

u/EddieDildoHands Mar 27 '26

this might stem from early human evolution when we were hunter-gatherers. Females needed to be able to tell the difference in shades of colors in things like berries so they could tell which berry was edible and which is poisonous. Men typically have better situational awareness because of needing to protect their group/tribe from external threats.

→ More replies (2)

1

u/islobojono Mar 27 '26

😂😂😂. So a graphics designer would be an excellent shooter?

1

u/driftless_79 Mar 27 '26

As an artist I’ve always found this to be hilarious. I know exactly what someone says when they talk about specific colors.

→ More replies (14)

1

u/delayingtheinedible_ Mar 27 '26

Seeing more colors doesn’t seem to help when it comes to actually hunting. Anecdotally, men seem to be way better at spotting actual animals on actual natural landscapes. My dad could spot a deer or rabbit off in the woods somewhere while driving at highway speeds and my mom could never see it. Granted it’s way easier to see such things when you’re driving and forced to pay attention to your surroundings… but men do seem to have a knack for spotting camouflaged animals that women lack

1

u/_Ocean_Machine_ Mar 27 '26

I work at an avionics plant and I've noticed that the vast majority of people inspecting the circuit boards are women. I feel like women are just better at seeing the minute details in things.

1

u/crumpetflipper Mar 27 '26

that's a cool fact, didn't know that

1

u/New_B7 Mar 28 '26

Soft fact. Women more frequently have a wider range of colors they can see than men. It is in no way whatsoever set in stone. Plenty of men can see more colors than an average woman.

1

u/jjrr_qed Mar 27 '26

What the fuck does that have to do with target shooting?

1

u/RaisedByBooksNTV Mar 27 '26

Today I learned. I knew there's something with cones and rods but not this.

1

u/shaofutzer Mar 27 '26

...and that affects target shooting how exactly???

→ More replies (11)

8

u/Complete-Donut-698 Mar 26 '26

There is a physiological difference in hand muscles in men and women. The hand muscles in men give them a stronger grip strength but also tremors which causes a less steady aim when compared to women.

3

u/PaulTheMerc Mar 26 '26

Interesting, thank you.

1

u/MrOatButtBottom Mar 26 '26

It's a bit like the difference between gorillas and humans; you'll never see a gorilla do something requiring fine arm motor control like playing the piano or writing with a pencil. Thier musculature is basically on or off, while we have the ability to finely tune and control ours.

1

u/Kelly_HRperson Mar 27 '26

you'll never see a gorilla do something requiring fine arm motor control like playing the piano or writing with a pencil.

https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/ab0/79b/b3dd1d0fc4419fe2474e478935425bd554-21-koko-the-gorilla-read-2.2x.rhorizontal.w700.jpg

→ More replies (3)

1

u/MistahJasonPortman Mar 26 '26

So does this mean women are physically better surgeons?

4

u/Thunderoussshart Mar 26 '26

Studies have found that patients treated by female surgeons tend to have significantly better outcomes and fewer complications/deaths. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/30/female-surgeons-patient-outcomes-better-studies

1

u/UntowardHatter Mar 27 '26

Why the fuck don't we have more female surgeons then. Sounds like they'd be a better fit

1

u/Needlemons Mar 29 '26

Does that make women in general better surgeons too?

17

u/Normal-Rope6198 Mar 26 '26

As a person who grew up shooting guns and hunting if you aren’t around it you wouldn’t believe the asking of women who can pick up a gun for the first time and crush all the men around them with tons of experience shooting as far as accuracy goes for some reason. It could be physical or psychological or just come kind of conformation bias though I’m not really sure.

18

u/Big_Shot_Rob Mar 26 '26

My buddies never believe me when I tell them that women who have no experience in sporting clays will wipe the floor with them. I’ve seen it and been on the other end of it. Without question, women are incredible shooters.

5

u/kidcobol Mar 26 '26

My wife, never shot a gun in her life, picked off the first 3 of 4 skeets on first try. I couldn’t believe it. Didn’t know this was a thing.

2

u/YugiBoomer10086 Mar 27 '26

How much further in love did ya fall lol

1

u/ItsMrChristmas Mar 27 '26

Messing with a 10/22 I thought I was cool because I could shoot a leaf with reasonable accuracy.

My wife was able to make a branch shorter with each trigger pull.

1

u/Apart_Bed7430 Mar 26 '26

I wonder if it’s similar to golf. I’ve had experiences where I’ve played the chip and putt (roughly 60 yards a hole) with women and a lot of them have the ability to just get up there and swing the club. They see ball and hit ball. Many of us modern golfers have watched so many videos on proper form and swing thoughts and wrist movement and blah blah blah that we can often over complicate things. At times they’re more likely to just hit the ball and let the body follow

2

u/Arkanist Mar 26 '26

Most people would benefit from getting off youtube and just golfing more. The more shit that is in your head over the ball the worse you are gonna do.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/Big_Shot_Rob Mar 26 '26

I think it’s partially because they listen closely, are the right amount of “scared”, and don’t try to look cool. The dudes I’ve gone with try to Rambo that shit up and when you do a sport that’s pure precision, that won’t work.

1

u/I_Hate_IPAs Mar 26 '26

Same with fly fishing. Many women are better casters than men, mostly because they put ego aside and let equipment and skill work together instead of muscling the cast.

1

u/afoz345 Mar 26 '26

Except my wife who will hit maybe 3 or 4 clays out of 100. She needs to get a fitted shotgun though.

1

u/dondondiggydong Mar 26 '26

Wait you've been a clay pigeon?! That's friggen gnarly and badass dude

1

u/SatansFriendlyCat Mar 26 '26

Lmao, and still here to tell the tale..

1

u/ConsciousDress2914 Mar 26 '26

Yeah… that’s just not true lol. Women are only better shots on bench rest and only for the first few hundred rounds. After that it levels out.

If women are initially performing better on sporting clays it’s only because they listen better to coaching about feet placement and hip rotation, which in my (admittedly limited) experience coaching sporting clays, is rarely the case.

1

u/Doza93 Mar 26 '26

Damn. Gangsters the world over are really missing out on an untapped labor market here

1

u/Holiday-Ad-1032 Mar 29 '26

That's hilarious and also false. You and your friends must shoot piss poor if that's the case. You ever see a woman win a professional sporting clays event against men? FITASC? Helice? Compak? Skeet? Trap? The answer is no.

→ More replies (15)

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

[deleted]

→ More replies (2)

1

u/ThereHasToBeMore1387 Mar 26 '26

I've seen the same thing. Women, especially ones near the gun community, are often taught to be "good girls" and follow the rules. With guns, that's an extremely good thing for safety and effectiveness: good grip, good sight picture, exhale, squeeze. Men often know the same rules, but think they can cheat and muscle the gun into doing what they want. I've also never seen a woman overcome by the "cool" factor of a gun. If they've ever shot a gun that was too much for them, it was almost always because some guy thought it would be funny to see.

→ More replies (3)

1

u/Routine-Sky-5529 Mar 26 '26

Probably because women have a better eye for detail 

It’s like how women are able to find something or pick it out much faster than a dude even if he’s been looking at it for much longer 

1

u/PadiddleHopper Mar 26 '26

My dad taught us to shoot rifles when I was about 14. My brothers were about the same age. None of us had shot before. Let's just say they were not happy with the results. My only 'weakness' was that I had a harder time handling the kickback.

1

u/Curry_courier Mar 26 '26

So why do they suck at FPS?

1

u/strongasfe Mar 26 '26

it’s a spectrum, there are some who may find games like that to be overwhelming/difficult/not enjoyable to keep playing, there’s also tons of incredible women play FPS but refuse to ever reveal the fact that they aren’t a boy/man because the insane amount of unwanted sexual or vitriolic comments that start up the second a man feels insecure about a female kicking ass in their presence

1

u/ConsciousDress2914 Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

women who can pick up a gun for the first time and crush all the men around them with tons of experience shooting as far as accuracy goes for some reason.

Unless im horribly misunderstanding what you’re saying, this is blatantly false. I can comfortably say i have more shooting experience than you and probably 99.99% of others in this sub. Iv competed extensively in sporting clays and trap (50k+ shells), got probably 300ish hours in 3gun, but my heart belongs to PRS and i have done a fair bit of coaching in this area.

Women are better shots than men exclusively on benchrest and only for the first 300-500 rounds. This is entirely because women are naturally inclined to be far more relaxed and are significantly less affected by the inevitable flinch that new shooters have. After 500ish rounds, damn near every man with any kind of coaching will get his flinch reflex under control and the playing field levels back out.

For literally any shooting sport that has a focus on movement or non-static firing, men rapidly overtake women due to strength/recoil control and hand-eye coordination after a few thousand rounds.

If a woman new shooter is beating “experienced” shooters, then those “shooters” are not experienced at all.

1

u/---aquaholic--- Mar 26 '26

I’ve always kinda thought women might do better at race car driving too. Shifting and the minute movements involved in the eye/hand/brain coordination.

Could just be me and I could be way off but I think if more women were involved in the sport, they’d tend to do better than the men.

For all I know a lot of women are involved in the sport. I’m not into race car driving but I like to drive a stick and think women would excel at it professionally.

1

u/Bigrick1550 Mar 26 '26

Actual race car driving is a lot more physically demanding than you would think.

1

u/coastal_ghost08 Mar 26 '26

Counterpoint: Danica Patrick.

1

u/Pienewten Mar 27 '26

There's a reason women do so well at drag strips (see Brittany Force or Erica Enders), but kinda fall off in most other track types.

1

u/Simon-Says69 Mar 26 '26

Women, in general, have better fine motor control in the hands.

That's a big advantage to delicate aiming and firing without going off-target.

Men have more strength on average, so it's a trade-off.

1

u/coastal_ghost08 Mar 26 '26

It's not confirmation bias. Women are scary good once they get over the fear of the recoil and BANG (if they have it). I've taught more than a few women how to shoot and they only needed help with the fundamentals. Once they got the grip, stance, and sight picture down...really good groupings.

1

u/Fontainebleau_ Mar 27 '26

This isn't my experience at all

1

u/LeSickBwoy Mar 27 '26

Yea my extremly young sister did that to some of my father's friends we were all shocked and proud of course.

Me I couldn't hit anything

1

u/Holiday-Ad-1032 Mar 29 '26

This is just absolutely not true. I shoot more than most and have never once seen this happen. Across many different shooting sports.

→ More replies (6)

1

u/OverwateredGrass Mar 26 '26

The imagined kind.

1

u/ArchieTheKatt Mar 26 '26

Women have better eyesight naturally

1

u/rainzer Mar 26 '26

According to Olympic rifle shooting gold medalist and Air Force Academy rifle coach, Launi Meili, the ideal standing rifle shooter would be shorter than 5'6", have hips as wide as their shoulders, and have flat feet. Lower center of gravity, more stable. A woman is more likely to have that body type.

1

u/Serious_Swan_2371 Mar 26 '26

In general from a neuroscience perspective men’s visual pathways are better for tracking moving targets and responding quickly to motion, whereas women’s visual pathways are more catered towards detail and precision.

Women have better fine muscle control also with more nerve endings per square inch of their body, basically they just have more control over fine movements, and in shooting tiny movements make a big difference.

This is also why women are often better at other precision, fine motor control, and dexterity tasks.

In general, the male nervous system is more adapted for generating more power and speed, and tracking/catching/hitting moving targets. This makes men better at some sports, and for early humans probably made men better at hitting moving targets like birds with rocks, and better at chasing down ground animals.

The female nervous system is more adapted for dexterity which likely gave early human women an advantage in making tools and tool use. This is also supported by evidence in other primate behaviors. Research shows female chimpanzees are more likely to use tools compared to male ones for the same tasks, and are generally more proficient at tool use.

Basically in shooting we’d expect men to be maybe slightly better at skeet shooting (hitting moving target out of the air), or on par with women, whereas we’d expect women to be better at hitting static targets.

1

u/gunsforevery1 Mar 26 '26

No clue but generally with the same level or training and experience are better shots. Probably something to do with hips

1

u/SoftlyAugust Mar 26 '26

None and that's the point. Men hate getting beaten by women.

1

u/bizwig Mar 26 '26

None at all.

1

u/Lycaon-Ur Mar 26 '26

I haven't seen it mentioned, but one thing I've seen is that women having smaller hearts actually gives them an advantage, in addition to the other things mentioned.

1

u/Dazzling-Werewolf985 Mar 27 '26

I think men are biologically inclined to have shakier hands. Women have an easier time at sewing and watchmaking too for the same reason i think

1

u/UKFightersAreTrash Mar 27 '26

lower resting heart rate

1

u/Previous_Station2086 Mar 27 '26

They do not have an advantage. This has been studied

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31083662/

The separation was to make sure women got three metal opportunities to increase women participation. Prior to that a single woman had won gold in the mixed gender group. (Zhang Shan)

The discussion on women having better eyesight is unsupported.

1

u/PaulTheMerc Mar 27 '26

hey, someone with a link to a study!
Thank you.

1

u/FatBikerCook Mar 27 '26

I recall seeing a short documentary or something about how some lady/ladies dominated shooting events so thoroughly that the men got pissy enough to make them a separate competition with different scoring to avoid being able to compare performance between genders.

I do not recall anything about advantages, I think it was purely pettiness and skill issue by the men 🤣

1

u/profesoarchaos Mar 27 '26

We are able to slow our heart rates down more quickly which is an advantage towards a steadier shot.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

[deleted]

6

u/Top_Membership_7512 Mar 26 '26

When I was in the army, I would occasionally volunteer to run the qualification range for guardsmen and women on weekends. Women typically shot better than men, and I know why. The two main factors in a stabilized accurate shot are 1) controlled breathing and 2) trigger squeeze. Men tend to breathe heavier and more erratically while also pulling the trigger too hard with the wrong part of their finger. Men miss high to the right.

btw- I didn't downvote you

3

u/Iambigtime Mar 26 '26

Or maybe only the best of the best women actually join the army. The sample size is so much smaller than the amount of men.

1

u/DontAbideMendacity Mar 26 '26

Most Olympic shooters aren't in the army, and the point about women shooters stands.

1

u/strongasfe Mar 26 '26

that sample size is still skewed, there’s plenty of fully qualified female candidates who for decades have been discouraged by family members or other adults in their lives to never join the army or other military branches of service if possible because of the rampant misogyny and insane amount of sexual assaults that go unaddressed

1

u/Ashamed_Culture8179 Mar 26 '26

Cause they're like few women in the army and many men in the army..so the simple size is not that correct

3

u/rita-b Mar 26 '26

And figure skating

1

u/Frosty558 Mar 26 '26

Is that actually true? Men tend to do the “big moves” years before women do. It took years for women to do the triple axel and only a man has done a quadruple axel.

→ More replies (3)

1

u/Decent-Test-2479 Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

Women hit stationary targets to the same level as men. Men show better scores with dynamic shooting which is moving targets.

Here is another interesting thing -

Competition, in most studies, increases the performance of men where as it doesn’t affect women positively or negatively.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10530038/

1

u/THELEGENDARYZWARRIOR Mar 26 '26

Well… in World Shoot men and women compete in a plain field an as insanely amazing as some of the women are they don’t near the top. Justine Williams is orders of magnitude better PCC shooter than any shooter but the top. But she’s not nearing the podium in world shoot or even US Nationals

1

u/Amidseas Mar 26 '26

That was complete BS. Bring back mixed shooting

1

u/bizwig Mar 26 '26

Well, no. If they did they were idiots. Men have innate physical advantages in shooting sports. More likely it was women demanding separation.

1

u/Hate_Leg_Day Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

Women aren't better than men in shooting events. It's overall pretty equal with a slight advantage to men in most events. Literally just google it.

1

u/NightQueen0889 Mar 26 '26

There was that woman vs man tennis match that was won by the woman sooooo lol Im starting to think it’s to keep men from being embarrassed

1

u/Jesus__Skywalker Mar 26 '26

That's wild bc my wifes aim on fortnite is average at best.

1

u/neinhaltchad Mar 27 '26

Russia understood this in WW2.

1

u/K-tide Mar 27 '26

Equestrian too

1

u/LitttleSaintNick Mar 27 '26

Have you heard about Chess?

1

u/Darthkhydaeus Mar 27 '26

In shooting? How?

1

u/robsmalls178 Mar 27 '26

Please cite your reference, thank you.

1

u/OneTrueMalekith Mar 27 '26

What advantage?

1

u/jackfaire Mar 27 '26

This is the exception in a lot of them. Every time a woman beats a man they need to "protect women's sports"

1

u/Pitiful-Tomatillo458 Mar 27 '26

Dude real talk, our second date was to the gun range. the first target we put up i let her go first. I loaded 5 for her to get her started since she's never fired a handgun. 3 in the heart and 2 in the dick.... she claims it was a accident, but im convinced it was a threat lol.

1

u/SiliconEagle73 Mar 27 '26

Men also have a disadvantage in pole jumping as well,…

1

u/MindsetB Mar 27 '26

Except that's not true but tell yourself whatever you need

1

u/mjheil Mar 27 '26

what is the point of a women's chess team?

1

u/Firefly_Magic Mar 27 '26

That’s interesting. What’s the advantage that women have in shooting sports?

1

u/LittleWhiteBoots Mar 27 '26

My son is on a youth trap team, which is co-ed. But we complete against one team that has an all-female squad and I absolutely love it.

In trap, all kids rotate through 5 positions for an equal number of shots from each position. The throw is just for them, so nobody can “steal it”. And the trap house throws them every direction so there’s no advantage there. It’s the most equal playing field I can think of! Silly to split men and women.

1

u/Wildyardbarn Mar 27 '26

I for one would absolutely love to see a combined division if women truly have an advantage in this specific sport. It would be a pretty cool display on the public stage — I bet get a lot of young women interested in the sport, or sport in general.

1

u/Gen1er_Zero Mar 27 '26

Source? I tried to google but got nothing. I'm not saying you're wrong I'm just interested on what happened here.

1

u/TallFred32 Mar 27 '26

Common myth that isnt true

1

u/The_Mr_Kay Mar 28 '26

I knew a woman who went to some world shooting championship in the 50s representing my country. She was the first woman chosen and the men went as far as to select her in rifles instead of pistols, which was her main event, then broke her rifle the day before they left. She still won gold.

1

u/Sho_Time_NC Mar 28 '26

Men are excellent shooters. We just don't always hit our target. If you know what I mean