Coincidentally to our data analysis of the ICF SUP World Championships the SUP World Rankings published their annual 10 month evaluation of the SUP Sport. A big topic on their mind is the ratio between men and women participation levels:
Quote:
“A recurring question concerns the ratio of female to male competitors and how they are ranked. The statistics clearly show that in 2024, the number of female competitors on the starting lines is similar to that of 2023. In 38% of the 157 competitions, the number of female participants did not exceed 10. If we were to apply the same evaluation criteria used for male competitors—where a minimum of 15 participants is required—approximately 65% of the women’s competitions would not meet the requirements for evaluation.“
One of the key figures here is female participation in all the ranked races, again 38% of all ranked races did not have more than 10 females participate. Do the quick math, these are 60 races. Frankly this number is quite surprising to us. In more than a third of all races not more than 10 women show up.
STATISTICS OF SUP RACES
from January 1 to November 1, 2024
Lets put the above numbers into words: 99 out of 157 races had at least 10 women or more. In 123 SUP Races out of 157 more than 20 men competed. What we don’t know is how many women or men competed in straight comparison. All we know is that a SUP Race needs a minimum of 6 women and 15 men in order to be ranked, the SWR calculates here a ratio of a bit more then twice as many men as women.
Looking at SWR numbers as of November 6th the SWR Longdistance Ranking counts 1285 male athletes and 552 female athletes that is less than half, to be exact: 42.9%
Taking a quick look at the current ratio at upcoming ICF SUP World Championships: According to the data available to us there are 290 male athletes and 179 female athletes. That is a ratio of 1.62 : 1. Given the approximate number or athletes the female portion makes 38.17% reflecting almost exactly the numbers of the SWR.
Short conclusion
The female participation the the active SUP Sport seems low. However from our perspective it is hard to say how low the 38% really are. If we we would aim at equal participation we would have quite some ways to go. More concerning seems that there has been no growth in competitive female SUP. People always like to compare SUP racing with marathon running since running is very inclusive and accessible. The hopes are that SUP will follow this path, so we ran the numbers for the Boston Marathon:
| Year | Total entrants | Male | Female |
| 2020 | 17,952 | 9,707 | 8,245 |
| 2021 | 18,075 | 9,365 | 8,710 |
| 2022 | 28,580 | 16,425 | 12,155 |
| 2023 | 30,132 | 17,195 | 12,911 |
| 2024 | 29,333 | 16,714 | 12,566 |
The main take away here is that A) the number of female is at a ratio of 1.33 : 1 definitely better than in SUP but the numbers of female athletes spiked during and after covid but then remained steady.
Back the the SUP Sport we really hope that we get more females to participate to bring the ratio as close to the marathon runners or even to equality.
SWR Outlook for 2025
“Starting in January 2025, the evaluation system for competitors will change. Over the past five years, we aimed to demonstrate and emphasize the competitors’ activity through their participation in events. Therefore, throughout the year, we aggregated the points for each competition, which formed the basis for the rankings. Only at the end of the year did the aggregated TOP 100 list reveal the true standings within the sport. This was a conscious decision made over the past years to promote SUP and to encourage the efforts of local competitions and competitors.”
“From January, only the results of the best six competitions will be included in the rankings across all categories. This means that each competitor’s top six results will automatically be counted. Following that, the result of the seventh competition will automatically replace the weakest score if its point total is higher than the previous ones. Thus, the current ranking will always be determined by the six most valuable scores in the respective category (LD, TC, Sp.). Of course, to ensure that everyone clearly sees their scores, we will implement an enhancement on the SWR site, allowing everyone to view all their results alongside their name. This can be checked by clicking on the name.”
We at the Stand Up Magazin salute this new way of calculating the rankings. We have been pointing out for quite a while that counting too many results dilutes the ranking. To counter act this development we started to run the numbers on an average score per racer and if necessary we will continue to do.