Men Vs Pro Sportswomen: How Much Respect Do Female Athletes Garner In The 2020s?
How do normal men believe they’ll fair up against professional sportswomen in their chosen sports? Men display confidence (or naivety, if you’d rather call it that) in their skills in soccer, MMA, basketball and tennis, up against some of America’s most successful women athletes.
Key Findings
- Men feel most able to compete with the USA Women’s Soccer team over all other sports with almost two in five men feeling like they had a shot at beating the team.
- Across all women’s sports, the youngest group of men, aged 21 to 26, were the most confident in their ability to outperform female athletes.
- Men in Florida were interestingly very confident in their ability to beat Florida native tennis star, Coco Gauff. Four in 25 men from Florida believe they could return Coco Gauff’s 190 km/ph serve.
Which Sports Do Men Think They Can Compete In Against The World's Greatest?
MMA
Almost 20% of men are confident of success in an MMA contest with Ronda Rousey. They believe they could last a full three-round fight inside the Octagon with the former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion if they take part in some combat training beforehand. The average American man does 7.5 hours of exercise per week – we’re sure Rousey matched that daily in her prime.
Additionally, 63% of men believe they would be capable of lasting over a minute up against Rousey, who only went over the 60-second mark five times in her whole career, recording an 80% win ratio.
Soccer
Four in 10 men believe that they would be able to compete in a professional women’s soccer game against some of the best female athletes in the world. On top of that, 7% of men even believed that they would be personally responsible for their team’s success. Bearing in mind only 20% of American men exercise daily, we’re sure they would struggle to keep up with the pros.
Assessing the numbers overall, 21–26-year-olds are the most confident in beating a team that included Women’s World Cup winners Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, with 52% believing they could comfortably compete in the game. Furthermore, 9% of 59–77-year-olds thought their skills would match up well against the two pros and their skills would be the defining factor in their team taking home the victory.
Basketball
Although fading slightly, the confidence in those surveyed being able to beat Candace Parker in a 1v1 still remained high. 12% answered boldly that they would be competitive and may even be able to beat the two-time WNBA MVP in a 15-minute contest.
The most confident age group was 21-26-year-olds with 33% displaying the confidence to take Parker on. In the hypothetical 1v1, 17% of men believed they would score at least 11 points up against the six-foot-four power forward, with 3% even claiming they could score at least 21 points.
Tennis
The current US Open champion Coco Gauff commanded the most respect from the men surveyed, with only 12% confident that they could return her serve at 190 km/ph. However, only 6% of the respondents play tennis at all, never mind on the same level as a Grand Slam winner.
The younger generation (21–26-year-olds) were predictably the most confident group, with 17% claiming that they could return her serve.
Florida Men Think They Can Take on Coco Gauff - And Win!
The state with the most confidence in taking on female sportswomen is Florida. Men from the Sunshine State top the charts as the most disrespectful, with 26% being reasonably confident or better of achieving a positive result against 12-2 Rousey.
Additionally, 16% of men from Florida believe they could return Coco Gauff’s rapid serve compared to the average of 12%.
Which Generation Lacks The Most Sporting Respect?
When it comes to our most delusional age group, the 21–26-year-olds comfortably take the crown. They are the most confident in all four sports, up against three of the finest female sportswomen America has produced in their respective sports, along with two Women’s World Cup winners and a team of professionals surrounding them.
Methodology:
CasinoAus is the industry’s leading and most trusted online gambling comparison platform, providing guides, reviews and news since 2017.
All the stats in this press release are formed from a survey of 1,037 American men. The responses were broken down into categories based on their age, the state they lived in and what sport they currently play.
The survey was conducted using Prolific in September 2023.
