Mixed evidence for black sprinters' monopoly - Times Online



Very interesting thoughts about why Africans DOMINATE the Sprint Events in Athletics

~Interesting article I suppose ,but I still think peeps are tap-dancing around visual common sense facts.

I don't care if the African is from east,north,west or south,if you train that athlete from say the age of 10(in sprinting) and put him up against a Caucasian,Asian or whomever of the same age we know who's gonna win.

Dude I suppose anyting can happen given time and drugs.

All I know is I don't expect to ever see a white person in the 100 m final in my lifetime...mixtures of other races possibly.

I dunno why peeps tie themselves up in all sorts of knots,I mean the Tour de France is one of the most gruelling sports on earth,you very rarely see any black men participating in that,maybe white men are just better acclimatized to that coz of the mountain shit,who knows??

I guess what i'm trying to say is that some races will excel in different events,for different reasons and it's ok to talk about it,and in decades time those things which I hold true,could change....but in the here and now...these are MY facts,even if i'm completely wrong,lol

No because those white dudes that lose in the Olympics are fast as hell too to even make it there and coming in full second behind an Olympic champion deems you fast in my book.

the ultimate sportman would be mixed race.

as someone said given time n drugs they will catch up....shiit I remember a time when only black girls had asses.

But a lot of athletes aren't trained from the age of 10. They have a natural talent which they act upon later on in life. For example Usain Bolt used to play cricket far more often apparantly.

Personally I think there are genetic advantages/differences. You don't see black swimmers dominating for example. That argument in the article about exams and academia is not the right example. You can teach and learn subjects like maths and science. Yes, you can learn and train to run faster but it won't be natural like it is for Asafa.

Kunjufu

But look closer at boxing and you'll realise the black boxer has died out not for sporting reasons. The rise in strength of the hispanic demographic in the US means that it's harder to sell black boxers to a pay per view audience. They want to see lightweight hispanic boxers. The lessening of status of boxing plays a part too with our fashion conscious youth. Boxing is high risk and to justify it you need big payoff that ain't there no more.

They were talking about Jamaica before the olympics and how a whole system from school upwards is geared around sprinting. That means Jamaica has expert scouts, trainers and teachers all spotting for kids who can sprint and move fast. Sprinting itself has a high status out there and the heros are promoted so it's something kids can gravitate towards. Veronica Campbell, a gold medal sprinter is a bigger star in JA than she would be if she was a gold medal show jockey. The exact same was shown in Kenya with Long distance runners.

I'm not totally writing off the genetic differences but I think these people play far far too much attention to it. They never worry about how come Europeans like Marius Pudzinowski and Magnus ver Magnusson constantly win strongman events. Are white people stronger than us on average? Gimme a break.

Did anyone watch the documentary on Colin Jackson about ten days ago called 'the Making of Me'? The premise of the programme was to determine whether his sprinting ability was due to nature or nurture.

The conclusion was that is was a mixture of the two however he wanted to find out whether male sprinters of African descent had some sort of physical or genetic advantage to their non-African counterparts. Researchers went back to Jamaica where his family came from and found that 80% of Jamaicans had the 'sprint gene' but also found that 80% of Europeans also had this same 'sprint gene'.

They then showed footage of a national school sports day in Jamaica and it seems that there is scouting of children at a young age and those spotted with talent are selected and trained. Track and field also seems very popular there - there were 30,000 children and adults spectating at the national school sports day, could anyone imagine that happening at the equivalent 'English Schools' athletics event?

@ watcher

AA boxers/ing is dying out because everyone sees that they can make more money going to the NFL and the NBA or even rapping.

This is a well known fact over here that kids see that they can make the same amount of money with an NBA contract or get paid playing football than boxing. The boxing payday does not compare to the other two sports at the moment so the kids do not get into boxing because it is easier to make more money and not get your head bashed in.

I wish I could say it is because it is not fashionable, but people here don't care who they see box at the moment. They just want a good fight period as all of the athletes are going to other sports.