The gap between elite female and male runners continues to shrink in the 21st century

In 1992 a controversial analysis of historical trends in world record performances raised the question of whether women would one day run faster than men across a whole range of athletic disciplines. Since then, however, the consensus has been that the gap between male and female runners stabilised towards the end of the 20th century and has since remained unchanged. Here I analyse running performances by elite athletes since 2001 to show that contrary to this widely held belief, women have in fact continued to close the gap on men across all distances from 60 m to the marathon. Women made the biggest gains relative to men in middle and long-distance running disciplines, and this occurred despite the fact that men too have continued to improve significantly in these events over the past 25 years. The jury is still out there as to whether women will one day run faster than men, but what does appear more certain is that women will continue to push the boundaries of running performance over the coming decades.