Let's say one parent is a 10 000m runner and the other a 100m sprinter, what distance will their child choose and be good at? Someone here started a thread about Bekele donating sperm, so I fantasize what would happen if someone like Carmelita Jeter took it. Would their child be a super800m runner?
Do you know any real life examples of this?
michael Jordans kids suck at bball and walter payton kids didnt do jack in football. Genetics is all by chance...
nurse wrote:
michael Jordans kids suck at bball and walter payton kids didnt do jack in football. Genetics is all by chance...
what? have you even eaten banana bread?
Running success is dependent on training. Nothing suggests that genetics have anything to do with it. The offspring will be good at whichever event they are doing the best training for.
Fffff wrote:
Running success is dependent on training. Nothing suggests that genetics have anything to do with it.
So you think that Bolt could have been a great marathon runner had he trained for it?
I am not saying that a son of Bekele and Jeter would run world class 800m times off no training, of course he would have to train hard for it. I just asked if middle distance would be the right choice to specialize for him.. if one can expect that the best event for him would be somewhere between the distances of his parents
Anyone that refutes genetics as a huge factor in any sport is completely idotic.
Of course Jordan's kids are bad at basketball, that's because Jordan is still making millions off of how good he was at the game, where is the motivation to be good at something when you're already rich because someone else did it?
Look at the Jones Family, Jon Jones is the Light Heavyweight champion in the UFC, his brothers both play in the NFL.
There are also countless twins in collegiate running and Olympic sports.
The Morris brothers in Basketball, the Pouncey twins in Football, the Sedin Twins in Hockey. Family genetics is a huge factor in being succesful on a professional scale.
The biggest problem is, you'll never get world class talent generation after generation to breed together and train their children to do the same to actually see the beenfits.
If Jeter and Bekele had a child it would most likely take after either the mother or the father, the perfect storm of Bekele's Endurance combining with Jeter's raw speed would end creating the next Caster Semenya.
Until the science of Gattica becomes a reality, we're simply going to have to breed our low class collegiates together and hope for the best.
It will interesting to see if Adam and Kara Goucher's son does anything in distance running.
Why do you think that Bolt couldn't have been a great marathon runner?
What exact would the parents be passing down to their children?
With that logic, Steve Ovett's son Freddy should be a mediocre runner, since his dad was great, but his mother didn't run. Then why is Freddy at the U of Orgegon on scholarship?
Why was Ken Griffey Jr. such a great baseball player when his mother never even played baseball or softball?
By your logic Burt, why are any of our athletes any good if their parents didn't excel at that sport? Neither of Babe Ruth's parents were any good at sports.
I have a high school teammate who was Colorado State Champ in XC and 2 mile, runner up in mile. He was DII all american in college-PR is in the low 29s in the 10K. His wife has a similar pedigree. Their son is a junior in high school and is a 20 minute 5k runner-nice kid but not nearly as interested in athletics as dad and mom.
Anyone have athletic bio for Ashley Slaney? Maybe 30yo now.
Dad was a pretty good thrower
Mom was a pretty good runner
Shalane Flanagan's parents were both good distance runners (Mom 2:40s marathon, dad, low 29:00 10K). Genetics plays a role. Sometimes a parent didn't explore running but if they had, they might have been good too. That is especially true for women, as women growing up in the 70s and 80s were not as openly encouraged to be athletic as is the case now.
I believe Khadevis Robinson's parents were a Kenyan distance runner and Jamaican sprinter who met while competing in college in the NCAA.
Glenn Randall's dad ran a 2:40 marathon as a 16 or 17 year old, and was a national class cross country skier. His mom was an Olympic XC skier for Norway.
Glenn was an NCAA XC skiing champion, and ran a 2:37 marathon in Boston a couple weeks back. He also ran 2:20 in Chicago, and won the Pikes Peak Ascent.
amateur geneticist wrote:
Let's say one parent is a 10 000m runner and the other a 100m sprinter, what distance will their child choose and be good at?
There are two groups they could fall into:
The SPLITTERS. These prodiginal athletes split the difference of their spermatazoa and ovum donors, and choose the event right in the middle - 4950 meters. This athlete would suck, because he would stop 50 meters before the 5k finish and never amount to anything. This usually happens.
The SUM-BODIES. A few have been known to add the sum of the donors' distances and end up running the 10,100m. These athletes usually tack on the extra distance to the beginning of the race and start with a 100m disadvantage and play catch-up all race. Poor slobs aggravate every coach and never get any endorsement money, thus they quickly from the racing scene.
My father is a long distance runner and my mother was a sprinter and I am much more like my father. Maybe with a tad bit more fast twitch tho.
Energy production is due to mitochondria and that part of the inheritance is entirely from the mother.
Also worth remembering that at elite level, it is mental toughness which really makes the difference (assuming you have sufficient physical talent). Incidentally, does anyone on this forum know how I might go about contacting Steve Ovett? Understand he lives in Melbourne now. Happy running to one and all.