I can see your ribs.
Dear world,
How come so many of the great marathoners are from Kenya? Is there a genetic component or is it upbringing? (I mean, not many Americans run to school every day). I find myself bummed when people say "Oh the {Ethiopians, Kenyans, ...} are just better at distance running than Americans". But is it really true? It seems vaguely racist to me. But then again, I'm not bothered by all the Maori rugby players, African-American sprinters, or Canadian hockey players.
My reasoning is usually that it's about opportunity -- it's the same reason so many baseball players come from the Dominican Republic, or footballers come from Brazil. It's the sport that people do in order to make enough money to get ahead. But maybe this isn't the whole story? What do you guys think?
7 comments:
Kara Goucher won bronze in the 10k last night. Woot. But yes, back to your comment, it is highly genetic.
I remember a study I read a few years ago: 297 of the top 300 performers in the 100 meters were of west african descent. White men can't run, or at least, not as well.
Was there a day at practice where someone told me that no white man had ever run sub-10 in the 100m dash?
That's true, an Australian guy was close a couple years ago.
there was an australian who broke 10 seconds. patrick johnson ran 9.93 in 2003. he's part white and part aborigine.
according to the wikipedia article Marian Woronin, a Pole who ran 10.00, actually ran 9.992 on the automatic timer, but it was rounded up.
also, koji ito (japanese) ran 10.00
finally, that statistic on west african dominance is 297 of the top 300 performances rather than performers, with johnson the only person without west african heritage in the top 300 performances
'I find myself bummed when people say "Oh the {Ethiopians, Kenyans, ...} are just better at distance running than Americans". But is it really true? It seems vaguely racist to me.'
I think I would only consider statements such as that "racist" if they're unfair generalizations or not backed up by factual information. For example, I don't think it would be racist to say that the Jews dominate the government and most of the money and production capital (in the state of Israel). As far as racist statements regarding athletic performance and African ancestry, I think 297 out of 300 performances is pretty conclusive.
Besides, look at those ghetto booties. I mean, come on, how are we supposed to compete with that when half the 100m is just getting out of the blocks?
yeah man, it's all about them ghetto booties lol.
Yeah i was talking to my dad and apparently there is this family in norway that has had 3 consecutive generations medal in XC skiing. Then the youngest guy was charged with blood doping because his hemacrit count was off the charts, but it turns out he has a rare genetic 'disorder' where the body produces too much red blood cells per volume part of blood. Its like a genetic mutation for EPO or something. Pretty crazy.
Obviously that is just one trait, a pretty mendelian one at that too. Many physical human characteristics are very complicated genetically. Height is one that is clearly genetic, but it behaves very interestingly due to that fact that it is controlled from many different genes on many different chromosomes. So you have that and you have that there are many physical traits that determine running speed. In the end it is uber complicated, but still very 'genetic'
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