Women are increasingly challenging long-standing male records in extreme endurance sports, with recent performances suggesting that the gap between male and female athletes can narrow significantly as race distances become longer.
New Zealand ultrarunner Sophie Woods is among the latest athletes to demonstrate that shift. Competing on the 2,000-kilometer Via Alpina route across the Alps, Woods completed the course faster than the previous overall record, surpassing both the women’s and men’s marks.
Her achievement adds to a growing list of women who have delivered record-breaking performances in some of the world’s most demanding endurance events.
The Longer the Race, the Smaller the Gap
Woods is not the only woman to outperform previous men’s records in extreme endurance competition.
In 2026, Rachel Entrekin won the approximately 400-kilometer Cocodona 250 race in the United States and set a new overall distance record.
In 2025, Tara Dower completed Vermont’s approximately 440-kilometer Long Trail in three days, 18 hours and 29 minutes, beating the previous men’s record by around two hours and 40 minutes.
German physician and endurance cyclist Fiona Kolbinger made history in 2019 by becoming the first woman to win the Transcontinental Race. She covered nearly 4,000 kilometers across Europe and finished approximately eight hours ahead of the second-place male competitor.
That same year, Jasmin Paris became the first woman to win the 430-kilometer Spine Race in the United Kingdom, improving the previous course record by more than 12 hours.
These performances are individual achievements, but they form part of a broader pattern that has attracted increasing attention from sports researchers.
Research Shows a Narrowing Performance Gap
An analysis by RunRepeat and the International Association of Ultrarunners examined more than five million race results from more than 15,000 ultramarathons.
The analysis found that the performance gap between men and women tends to decrease as race distance increases.
In the marathon, men were an average of 11.1% faster than women. At 100 miles, or approximately 160 kilometers, the average difference fell to just 0.25%.
At distances exceeding 195 miles, approximately 314 kilometers, women were, on average, 0.6% faster than men in the analyzed results.
The findings do not mean that women are generally faster than men in endurance sports. Men continue to hold many endurance records and maintain a substantial average advantage in shorter-distance events. Instead, the data suggest that the physiological differences between male and female athletes may become less decisive as physical exertion extends over increasingly extreme distances.
Why Can Women Perform So Well Over Extreme Distances?
Researchers and athletes point to several possible explanations.
Women, on average, have a higher proportion of fatigue-resistant Type I muscle fibers and tend to rely relatively more on fat as an energy source during prolonged endurance exercise.
Men generally have advantages in factors such as muscle mass and maximum oxygen consumption, which can be particularly important in shorter and faster events. In extremely long races, however, the ability to conserve energy and maintain performance over many hours or days may become increasingly important.
Woods believes women may have an advantage in their ability to use fat efficiently during prolonged effort, although she does not consider physiology to be the only explanation for success.
Endurance Is Also a Test of Problem-Solving
Extreme endurance races involve far more than running speed.
Athletes must constantly make decisions about sleep, nutrition, hydration, pain management, pacing and recovery while their physical and mental resources decline.
Woods said she also believes women can benefit from their ability to set aside ego and focus on solving problems as they arise.
During her Via Alpina challenge, she relied heavily on her support team to determine when she should continue, eat, rest or sleep.
Her approach was based on controlling what could be controlled while accepting the unpredictable conditions of an endurance challenge that lasted for weeks.
Three Hours of Sleep and Up to 7,000 Calories a Day
The physical demands of Woods’ record attempt were extreme.
She averaged only three to four hours of sleep per night, with some periods toward the end of the challenge reduced to around 90 minutes. At times, exhaustion forced her to lie down for a few minutes beside the route before continuing.
Her energy requirements were also enormous. Her team estimated that she consumed between 6,000 and 7,000 calories a day.
Her diet included sports drinks, electrolytes, cola, burritos, falafel wraps, sandwiches, pasta and fast food, with much of the food consumed while she was still moving.
Heat and pain added further challenges, particularly in the Dolomites. Woods described experiencing extreme heat, severe pain and significant swelling, at one point questioning whether she could complete the route.
She continued.
Women’s Bodies Have Been Underrepresented in Sports Research
Woods’ record has also reignited questions about the extent to which women’s bodies have been studied in sports science.
For decades, much sports and medical research focused predominantly on male athletes. Female athletes were often considered more difficult subjects to study, including because of factors such as the menstrual cycle.
Woods argues that women have been overlooked in sports research for too long and says more research is needed to understand how female athletes respond to extreme physical demands.
The issue extends beyond scientific research. Women in endurance sports continue to push for greater media coverage, research investment, professional support and recognition.
Understanding the differences between male and female athletes could help coaches, researchers and sports organizations develop training and support systems that better reflect women’s physiological needs.
Extreme Endurance May Be the Great Equalizer
Individual records cannot establish that women are universally better than men at endurance sports. Men remain significantly faster on average over shorter distances and continue to hold numerous records across endurance events.
The emerging evidence instead points to an important distinction: as the physical challenge becomes longer and more extreme, factors beyond maximum speed, muscle mass and oxygen capacity can become increasingly important.
Sports physiologist Nicholas Tiller has described ultra-endurance distances as a potential “great equalizer,” where pacing, energy management, resilience, decision-making and the ability to withstand prolonged fatigue may carry greater weight.
For Woods, however, the most important lesson is not about whether women or men have the advantage.
Her message to other women is simpler: try.
Her philosophy is to confront what scares you, regardless of the final result, because taking the opportunity to challenge yourself is an achievement in itself.
