Btukfyl

In The Ancestor's Tale, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins makes the following statement about sexual dimorphism:

Our sexual dimporhism is moderate but undeniable. Lots of women are taller than lots of men, but the tallest men are taller than the tallest women. Lots of women can run faster, lift heavier weights, throw javelins further, play better tennis, than lots of men. But for humans, unlike for racehorses, the underlying sexual dimorphism precludes sex-blind open competition at the top level in almost any sport you care to name. In most physical sports, every single one of the world’s top hundred men would beat every single one of the world’s top hundred women.

I wonder if this has been backed up with a proper data.

Expanding on Xen2050's information, the wikipedia List of Olympic records page has links to each individual sport, listing the top 25 results by gender. I've compiled the information showing the 25th-best men's result vs. the best women's result. (I skipped the 110m hurdles since they are not directly comparable.) This does not prove the claim (top 100 men vs. top 100 women) but it does give a better feel for the discrepancy between genders in the results:

Sport:              25th-ranked men's result:   top-ranked women's result:

100m                9.87                        10.49

200m                19.80                       21.34

400m                44.10                       47.60

800m                1:42.81                     1:53.28

1500m               3:29.59                     3:50.07

5000m               12:51.00                    14:11.15

10000m              26:49.94                    29:17.45

Marathon            2:04:32                     2:15:25

400m Hurdle         47.67                       52.34

3000m Steeplechase  8:04.95                     8:44.32

4x100 Relay         37.58 (*)                   40.82

4x400 Relay         2:57.87                     3:15.17

20k Walk            1:18:06                     1:23:39

50k Walk            3:36:20 (**)                4:05:56

High Jump           2.38m                       2.09m

Long Jump           8.51m                       7.52m

Pole Vault          5.98m                       5.06m

Triple Jump         17.75m                      15.50m

Shot Put            22.08m                      22.63m  (would get 10th place on men's listing)

Discus Throw (+)    69.95m                      76.80m  (would get 1st place on men's listing)

Hammer Throw        82.54m                      82.98m  (would get 19th place on men's listing)

Javelin Throw       89.02m                      72.28m

Decathlon           8663 points                 8358 points

notes:

(*): 20th-place result; lower results not available

(**): 10th-place result; lower results not available

(+): the men's discus weighs 2kg and is 22cm in diameter, while the women's discus weighs 1kg and is 18cm in diameter, so these results really are not directly comparable.

(The shots, hammers and javelins are also lighter for the women's events.)

The fuller quote is talking about "the top level in almost any sport," and that's almost the literal definition of the Olympics, where more than 100 of the top athletes compete.

Here's the events & their records from Wikipedia's List of Olympic records in athletics, I'll try formatting them by sport, with the mens & women's records side-by-side for easier comparison:

                              Records

Event                   Men's       Women's

=====                   =====       =======

100m                    9.63        10.62

200 metres              19.30       ♦21.34

400 metres              ♦43.03      48.25

800 metres              ♦1:40.91    1:53.43

1,500 metres            3:32.07     3:53.96

5,000 metres            12:57.82    14:26.17

10,000 metres           27:01.17    ♦29:17.45

Marathon                2:06:32     2:23:07

110 metres hurdles      12.91       12.35

 * only 100m hurdles for women

400 metres hurdles      ♦46.78      52.64

3,000 m steeplechase    8:03.28     8:58.81

4×100 m relay           ♦36.84      ♦40.82

4×400 m relay           2:55.39     ♦3:15.17

20 km walk              1:18:46     1:25:02

High jump               2.39 m      2.06 m

Long jump               8.90 m      7.40 m

Pole vault              6.03 m      5.05 m

Triple jump             18.09 m     15.39 m

Shot put                22.52 m     22.41 m

 * men's shot weighs 16 lb, women's 8.8 lb

Discus throw            69.89 m     72.30 m

 * men's weigh 2kg/4.4 lb, women's 1kg/2.2 lb

Hammer throw            84.80 m     82.29 m

 * men's weigh 16 lb, women's 8.82 lb

Javelin throw           90.57 m     71.53 m

 * men's weigh 800g/1.76 lb, women's 600g/1.32 lb

Decathlon               8893 pts    ♦7291 pts



(♦ denotes a performance that is also a current world record.

 Statistics are correct as of 19 August 2016.)

It appears that the men's records are faster/longer for everything except the discus throw. The statement appears to hold up for almost all Olympic events.

The question can not be honestly answered as it is stated remarkably imprecise ( in more than two instances ).

Success in "sport" disciplines depend on sportive qualities that are distinct from each other ranging from fast strategic thinking (chess) over teamwork (i.e. climbing, ice-stick shooting, curling and alike team sports) to athletic capabilities.

While many of these qualities are not tangled to sex, muscular strength, fast power and endurance performance are.

There are physiological differences in muscular composition between males and females in homo sapiens that are rooted in sex driven hormonal differences that beside direct impact interact in various ways with growth and motoric ability. Some of these sex differences might be overcome by hormonal substitution combined with training at least in young fit individuals (this is because the bone composition / tendonous apparatus needs to adapt to muscular strength and the timeframe for bone composition change is early in lifespan).

Therefore only in "sports" that depend foremost on power of the muscular skeletal system in a challenge of comparable conditioned man and women, the males are unlikely to be beaten even by exceptional strong females i.e. olympic weightlifting (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_weightlifting)