men and women and cold water
How's that for a catchy title?
I just bought a drysuit for kayaking (Ursuit Multipurpose, thin and superlightweight) and with it there was a small brochure showing some results from a couple of immersion tests wearing these suits in very cold water for up to 6 hours (!) :eek:. Granted the sample was small - 3 men and 3 women in the first test, 5 men and 4 women in the second, but still the graphs showing the fall in their individual body temperatures were really interesting. The women all started out with slightly higher body temps, but their core temps sank significantly less than the men's did, with one guys temperature sinking like a rock. He obviously had to pull out of the test halfway because he was dangerously close to hypothermia.
I have no idea what kind of fitness level or body fat percentage these people had, but it reminded me of a reality show here in Norway where at some point the 8 contestants had to swim as far as they could across a glacier lake, with water temps just above freezing. Every single woman outswam every single man, with even the skinniest and most unfit woman lasting longer in the water than both the chubbiest guy with considerable body fat, and the strongest, fittest one, a former professional soccer player.
And I remember reading somewhere that the only athletic endeavour where women consistently outperform men is long-distance swimming, like across the English Channel.
Maybe this is old news to all of you OW swimmers, but I found this fascinating. Is it just higher body fat, or is it better distributed, protecting the inner organs from cold, or is it something else again?
