Quote:
Originally Posted by nfotiu
I think the gap is much larger in these sports that have large gaps in participation between males and females. The male recreational snowboarding population is double females, and I'd guess that is even more pronounced in competitive snowboarding. It also doesn't hurt that it is a more lucrative sport for males, which means better access to coaching, technology, and more incentive to keep going in the sport.
Genetics is a significant factor, but I'd guess the gap wouldn't be nearly as big if the pool of competitors and money was equal to both sexes.
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I think this is a huge factor in the skill set different. If you look at a sport like figure skating you have 1 women who has landed a quad and now all of the elite men landing quads. The difference in ability between the elite groups right now is about 1/2 of a rotation (difference between triple axel and quad toe/loop).
Compare that to snowboarding where you have 1-2 full rotations or flips being added as the gender gap.
Another issue with snowboarding is the course design. The womens slopestyle course even excluding the wind was designed for Men. The length of the second jump to the knuckle was too far for the lighter athletes to be competitive. So you have some inherent bias that limits achievement just in the design of the sport.
But if you look at a sport like Bobsled, luge, speed skating, alpine skiing or XC skiing there is no skill based divide and the appearance of the sports and the excitement generated by watching them is the same. It is purely a genetic difference that separates the elite from the elite of each gender.
So outside of very few examples the Calibre of athlete of each gender is equal.