Quote:
Originally Posted by lastcardcharlie
In the paragraph following Figure 1. Sorry, I don't think it was a good quote to pick. Probably better to go with the conclusion:
Thanks. Here's the full paragraph.
Quote:
he most common gender strategy according to one-way ANOVA for both the 4 × 100 m freestyle and medley mixed relays was male-male-female-female order (57 out of 82 cases for the freestyle and 29 out of 83 for the medley relays, respectively). This male-male-female-female relay composition represented better relay total times in the 4 × 100 m freestyle mixed event (p < 0.001), whereas no statistical differences (p = 0.79) were detected in the 4 × 100 m medley mixed relay (Figure 2). In this latter case, the best relay combination according to final times was female-male-female-male, corresponding to the backstroke-breaststroke-butterfly-freestyle order (237.47 ± 16.14 s). The relative dispersion indicated by the coefficient of variation (CV) of the relay leg performances was not only greater for female than for male swimmers, but also for the heats compared to the final round (CV 6.17 and 1.39% for males vs. 8.38 and 1.46% for females, in the finals or heats round, respectively).
Notice the very strong p-value, 0.001, for swimming the men first in the freestyle mixed relay. I think that sums up the effect of all the psychological factors. But those effects are evidently negated in the mixed medley, I suspect because of the gender differential between events.
There's a 6 second difference in male/female world records for the butterfly while a 5 second difference for freestyle. Also, Caeleb Dressel, who the U.S. swam in the freestyle, holds the butterfly world record. However, it's possible the U.S. female freestyle swimmer is more than a second weaker than the U.S. female butterfly swimmer. I can see how generic gender event differentials on the order of 1 second could be negated by other factors, especially in individual cases.
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