Sports Genetics?

[y2kroja]

I just finished watching the 100m finals of the on-going World Athletics Championship in Finland and it was won by Justin Gatlin in 9.88sec. I noticed that ALL the finalists were black. All the finest sprinters from US, UK and much of everywhere else in the world are blacks. Is there any genetic or biological explanation regarding blacks and sprints?

[jno]

don't know, but back in the 1980s I used to see occasional articles explaining why black men made superior fast bowlers in cricket (something about spine structure, I think). This was when the West Indies seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of them. Then the supply ran out, West Indies are nowhere, and almost all the best fast bowlers are white. So if any explanation does come up, treat it with caution.

[Ward-Minter]

I have thought about this too. I used to think that there was a genetic disposition that makes blacks built stronger and more powerful for sprinting. But then blacks tend to dominate long distance running aswell.

White men can't jump (even made a movie) tends to be true as there are not many white NBA stars are there.

However, there aren't many black swimmers.

I suppose to some degree there are sociological answers with some sports regarding the more working class pastimes such as football and boxing. And I can't remember his name but that black showjumper caused the white snobs headaches when he entered the scene.

[jake-the-peg]

I was told once that there were differences in the achilles tendon that were advantageous for running for black athletes but disadvantageous for swimming.

Sounds a bit too simple to me but seems to have a few grains of truth in it. I found some references here: http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/topic/t-38685_Studies_on_racial_differences.html

to some papers studying differences with some brief overviews but I haven't read the papers so I can't say how reliable the work is.