After years and years of young women growing up afraid to lift weights in case they get ‘bulky’, we are finally seeing the age of women relishing in endurance sports. Hurrah! Workouts have transitioned from a chore to stay skinny and attain a Brazilian Butt Lift-like (BBL) physique, to the pursuit of improved fitness, a boosted metabolism, and muscle growth. Welcome to the inevitable rise of ‘amletes’, anointing a new era celebrating female strength and resilience.

‘Amlete’ is a combination of the words ‘amateur’ and ‘athlete’, and is a term that was coined by Elle in a recent op-ed. The trend behind it started to gain traction with the rise of adult amateur athletes, largely driven by women, which we love to see. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) estimates that just 0.9 per cent of collegiate athletes in the US go on to compete professionally. This of course leaves the door wide open for people to continue to play uni sports on an extracurricular basis.

The only barrier to entry that exists for amletes is really just the ability to find a place to play. Thus, we’ve been observing a rise of women swapping their heels for trainers after their 9 to 5 ends to train for the upcoming marathon, Ironman triathlon, or simply to train and break the complicated relationship women have had with the athletic body until now. What a time to be alive, folks.

According to a worldwide study by footwear review company RunRepeat, 2018 was the first year that more women ran marathons than men.

Apparently, the amount of marathon runners made up of women has risen dramatically, going from 20 per cent in 1986 to a little over 50 per cent in 2018. RunRepeat’s analysis covers 107.9 million race results from more than 70,000 events from 1986 to 2018.

In the US, marathons are currently edging towards a 50/50 split between men and women, with around 44 per cent of the nearly 49,000 runners for the New York marathon being women in 2022. In the same year, the London Marathon also observed a female increase, specifically for older women: female runners aged 50 and older finishing the race grew by 65 per cent since 2018. This was accompanied by a 91 per cent increase in the number of female runners aged 60 to 69 registering to run, a demographic change organisers say will be hard to ignore.

There is even an influx of women participating in extreme endurance. In 2024, a record number of women estimated at roughly 35 per cent registered for the Marathon des Sables, a seven-day 250 kilometres ultramarathon in the Sahara Desert. The adventure is aptly described as “the toughest race on Earth,” attracting thousands of sports enthusiasts a year.

In March 2024, Scottish vet Jasmin Paris became the first woman to complete Tennessee’s gruelling Barkley Marathon. The elevation of this race is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest, proving that there is no mountain or challenge these athletes can’t conquer, next to holding down full-time gigs of course.

Girls continue to be dramatically less likely to stay in sports, due to years of binary beauty standards that celebrate strength, muscle and fitness in men, but label these as ‘unladylike’ in women. As a result, it’s no surprise that a Woman In Sport survey from 2022 found that almost half of girls who once considered themselves ‘sporty’ drop out of athletic activities before they reach the gentle age of 13.

Some gender gaps remain in endurance sports, with 24 per cent fewer women taking part in ultramarathons, compared to participation in shorter 5K events.

However, with the rise of amletes and despite years of sexist conditioning, there is reason to remain confident that this will change soon.