Why don't we see Kick Ass African American distance runners?

east african dominate distance not west africans and african americans are east african

This is debatable, but the dominant Africans are from East Africa. Most African Americans are of West African descent.

Morrocans are from Northeast Africa, but they're mostly of Arab descent.

they don't run enough

Andre Williams of Reebok Enclave fame ran 13:28 for 5k. Not to shabby.

Easy there blahblah..you must mean African Americans are WEST africans.

And also the current group or recently emigrated "African" Americans like Meb and Abdi are East African and are continuing the trend.

I predict that with more and more Afrians settling in the US, we will continue to see many more top US runners being of East Afrian origin. Just look at up and coming HS cross country runners.

does Morocco still keep track of which Moroccans are Berber and which are Arab? I'm almost certain Algeria stopped counting after it gained its independence.

The Berbers and Moors ARE Arab!

Maybe I wasn't clear enough on my point.

At the high school level it's rare that you will see an african american distance runner, yet you'll see a ton of african american sprinters. I don't believe it has anything to do with talent, I think it's a combo of what the kids try out for and what the coaches stick them in.

At the college level its a pretty rare sight too. Of course if a kenyan or ethiopian kid comes out for the track team they're thrown in with the distance runners right away even if they've never run track before.

I've had plenty of african american teammates in the past who I thought would be decent distance runners but they would rather be a mediocre sprinters or jumpers.

If people from east africa were naturally better at distance running, why aren't meb and abdiramen mixing it up on the world level?

It all comes down to socialization.

"why aren't meb and abdiramen mixing it up on the world level?"

Because they aren't quite that good? Why would you think all E. Africans, or all of any population would be good at something? Meb and Abdi are also clean, unlike the vast majority of those at the top.

And besides, Abdi and Meb (especially Meb) ARE mixing it up on a world level, or at least they have in the past. They may not be medalists in major championships, but with accomplishments like Meb's top 15 World XC, 27:13 or whatever 10,000, and so on, and Abdi usually right on his tail, you would have to concede that they are world class athletes.

But overall, I think there is some validity to your point. African-Americans as a whole may be better suited to sprinting, but I am sure that there are plenty among them who have the makings of great middle and long-distance runners. But there are numerous obstacles they have to get over first. I would guess the primary one would be a lack of social acceptance for distance runners. OK, I'm not black so I'm just theorizing here, but I get the feeling that being an up-and-coming distance runner isn't the best way to win acceptance in your community when you're an African-American. Being a good basketball player or football player seems to be the way to go. Even sprinting seems to be just a sideline sport for African-Americans--something football and basketball stars can do to stay in shape during the offseason.

Also, I'm pretty sure that what you said is true: African-American kids are assumed to be sprinters, and white kids are assumed to be distance guys. Many coaches and many aspiring athletes buy into this way of thinking by the percentages. I would imagine that there could be more successful white sprinters out there, but whites too fall into social stereotyping. I don't know if there would be many whites who could be world-class 100m runners, but they should probably at least be able to mix it up more at 400m, as shown by occasional examples such as Thomas Schonlebe of Germany, and the two Minnesota guys.

So basically, I think African-Americans could produce some top distance runners, but there is little interest in it on anyone's part. I don't think it's an example of any kind of hard-core racism; it's more that for a variety of reasons, African-Americans aren't particularly trying to become distance running stars. By the same token, there are lots of other national or social groups who haven't achieved their potential in a variety of sports: Mexican tennis players, Kenyan polo players, Chinese cricket players, etc.

Most Northeast Africans are Berber not Arab! Why do you think Qatar has to importr all its talent?

that manute fellow looked great in the silks

A lack of role models explains this and most other situations like it.

"I get the feeling that being an up-and-coming distance runner isn't the best way to win acceptance in your community"

Sadly, this may be the case for blacks, whites, asians, etc...

well, part of it is that most of the Africans in the US are descendents of former slaves, who were West African. Also, we are starting to see more Africans in HS: Mohammmed Trafeh, Nef Aria, etc. More will come. Before too long it will be Africans born in Africa vs. Africans living in Europe/America

Steve Holman and Regina Jacobs(putting the drug use aside) are both prominant african american distance runners.

Forget about the former slave west african decendant issue for a minute.

How many african american distance runners have you had as teammates on any level, high school or college?

With the number of people who participate in track there should be more of a distribution of ethnicities, at least at the lower levels of the sport.

If Haile runs 50 flat in the 400 and set world records at just about every distance event, don't you think there might be a possibility that some of our slow sprinters could be medal contenders in the future.

My cousin recently started running. His high schools top freshman is an african american kid. I talked to this kid and asked him if he was going to run the mile or 2 mile in track and he told me he was going to run the 100. He said he was a fast sprinter, yet at his league final meet he was outkicked.

Just my thoughts.

Yeah,

Those who run the mile are from the East. The brothers are from west Africa as well as the Carribean and these geographic areas manufacture sprinters.

Of course there could be other factors like orientation adn attitude but this is largely the factor.

yes, this is why the U.S. is so lacking in distance running talent.

Most of the Puritans and Pilgrims that gravitated to the United States are from Western Europe, like England, Scotland, Ireland.... and everyone knows that the really FAST white people are from Eastern Europe, like Germany, Austria, Ukraine, Russia, Poland....

as you can see...major cities like Cleveland, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, New Work, Buffalo, where many of the immigrants are from Eastern Europe - they are also the fastest high school distance runners - look at Ritz and Torres, Solinsky, Kennedy - all fast and from the states with these cities.....

in other words - the East vs West African thing is a bunch of bullshit.....we don't emphasize distance running with our African American kids. I bet they would also make great Tennis Players (Williams's sisters), but I don't see us pushing that sport in the A-A communities either.....

African Americans are trained to run away from cops and to do this they just have to run short distances very quickly and hide. Therefore they never get enough high mileage to be good at distance running because they don't want to go out and run far for fear it will make them tired when they need a quick getaway.