Physiological Characteristics of Female Athletes

A review of the literature revealed that female athletes in divergent sports and championship classes tended to be some variety of mesomorph, somewhat stronger and maybe leaner than the “average” female, able to inhale and exhale large volumes of air and to circulate elevated quantities of oxygen for the achievement of a high aerobic capacity, while at the same time possessing a greater than normal tolerance for lactic acid and O2 debt. Generally she was found to be physiologically superior to her untrained female counterpart and well above the average of many untrained males, but often not able to reach the physiological level of the champion male athlete. Performance comparisons in world records (male-female) showed that in all but the English Channel Swim, the female record is 7%-13% below the comparable male record.