does height matter? (Page 2)

Originally posted by austhokie

Originally posted by mike761

Originally posted by JorgeM

Pam - I am going to the say no, it doesnt matter in particular for females. The current Olympic Gold Medalist Emma Snowsill is 5' 3" (per the ITU website)

Just have fun, train and do the work. The performance will follow

^^^ Agree I have a neighbor who was a distance runner in the 96 Olympics she is 5'-2", her husband was a professional runner for 4-5 years after college and is only 5"-6". Their twin daughters are in high school right now and tear up the track at a whopping 5'-0"!!! I'm reading this and lots are saying that the best pro men are 6' to 6'-3"; yet on the Kona thread people are saying Andy Potts is too tall to win(he's 6'-2"). Then there's Mirinda Carfrae at 5'-3", nobody is calling her slow

zombie thread

When I saw it was a zombie thread with the topic of height, my first thought was that someone resurrected it to talk about Rinny's win on Saturday.

I think it matters because weight matters and the smaller you are the less of you there (probably) is.

Watching the pro women at Kona you’d be forgiven for thinking there was an elite midget category.

I remember this being discussed in slowtwitch and the point made was that it being a bit taller helps a ton in cycling.  Taller people have longer muscles and naturally larger aerobic engines (it takes more work to move a larger body).  However, in cycling you can still get in a low enough position to where your power/CdA is higher than someone of shorter stature.  It was an interesting discussion.

Yes there will be shorter people that can beat taller people, but we're talking most cases and not exceptions to the rule.

Of course height matters....the same way it does in every sport.  At either end of the spectrum are the sports where a lack of height or an abundance of height makes a difference.......but in between, where the majority of sports are, being in that 6' to 6'4" range seems to work out really well. Triathlon, at least whe3re men are concerned, seems to fit the mold.

It's been 6 years since I posted in this thread and I can tell you, that being 6'7" still hasn't proven out to be an advantage in tri! 

I think there is a point where the weight that comes with being tall starts to trump longer "levers" and such.

7 out of 12 are 6' or taller.....9 of 12 if you go down to 5'11.......I'm good with 6-6'4" for most athletic endeavors, including tri.

If your shoe size is proportional to your height, then I am going to say that height does matter in swimming. My SOs feet are the same size as my swim fins and man, I swim faster with those fins.

For marathon running- you're right in there with the elites.  Marathon runners are fairly petite.

My guess is that you seem to be working harder than your son because:

1.  he's a guy.  (sorry, it's just not fair)

2.  He's younger than you.  (yup, not fair again) 

anyway- I found this.  It's a few years old, but since then, the average marathoner is only been getting shorter and smaller.

Top 10 Women for 2005
1) Paula Radcliffe (Great Britian) 5'8" / 119 lbs
2) Catherine Ndereba (Kenya) 5'3" / 99 lbs
3) Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia) 5'6" / 112 lbs
4) Constantina Tomescu (Romania) 5'5" / 106 lbs
5) Deena Kastor (United States) 5'4.25" / 106 lbs
6) Mizuki Noguchi (Japan) 4'11" / 90 lbs
7) Susan Chepkemei (Kenya) 5'4.5" / 106 lbs
8) Derartu Tulu (Ethiopia) 5'1" / 99 lbs
9) Chunxiu Zhou (China) 5'4.25" / 97 lbs
10) Yumiko Hara (Japan) 5'4.5" / 108 lbs.

Read more: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1164007#ixzz3GBFh...