Performance trends in women and men's Canoe Sprint and Track Sprint Cycling

Tracking long-term performance trends in both women's and men's sport can provide insight into the progression of female athletic performance and the contexts that shape it. This study examined results from 1,284 international events over the past 20 years in Canoe Sprint disciplines (Sprint Kayaking; KAY, Sprint Canoeing; CAN), and in Track Sprint Cycling (CYC), to benchmark the progression in women's performance against men's using the percentage difference in race times. We observed larger performance gaps in upper-body dominant disciplines (KAY ~14%, CAN ~ 20%) than in the lower-body dominant CYC (~11%). Notably, in CAN - where women's elite-level inclusion has been more recent - performance gaps were both larger and continued to narrow over time. In contrast, KAY and CYC showed relatively stable differences, aligning with longer histories of women's participation. These findings suggest that observed size and stability of performance gaps reflect both physiological sex differences and the influence of sport-specific development pathways and access. Monitoring performance trajectories across both sexes may provide insight into whether sex differences reflect biological ceilings or are shaped by contextual inequities in opportunity and support.