Chris Froome and Zola Budd are two of the most naturally talented endurance athletes that Africa has ever produced, yet both were first generation white 'Africans'. The only thing they had in common with the likes of other great African athletes was that they grew up at altitude.
The white population of Africa is something like less than half of one percent, and we're told that black Africans simply have better genes, yet perhaps the two greatest male and female distance athletes came from the 0.3% pathetic white population.
Chris Froome is by a long way the richest, most successful, and most famous Kenyan athlete in its history. The white population of Kenya is less than 0.2% of the population. He had no advantages over his black class mates. His black school teacher lent him a bike because his English mother - a cleaner to a wealthy black family - couldn't afford one. If he hadn't excelled immediately at cycling, perhaps he would have become a successful runner (although I wonder if black racism would have held him back - perhaps that's why he chose to enter a 'white' sport?).
Zola Budd is one of the greatest natural distance talents in history. Yet her immediate ancestry was British/European (that is how she got her UK passport). She was smashing senior world records as a child and running barefoot. Unfortunately, as we know her career was ruined by the apartheid/citizenship uproar and then the LA clash with Decker (who, like most of her rivals, were juiced to the gills).
Despite this she still had a successful career, and since she returned to competitive racing in her 40s, amazingly she has won notable races against women half her age. She is perhaps the greatest 'what might have been' in athletics history. Arguably the most naturally talented runner in history.
Yet they certainly didn't have those 'superior African genes'. They simply had a lot of natural (white) talent and grew up at altitude. If there was just one even small country at altitude, say Norway, distance running would likely be dominated by Norwegians.
Part of the recent resurgence in 'white' running might be due to more altitude training, especially juniors, as well as the use of altitude chambers. Yet I read that European countries, including Norway (which will obviously affect Jakob Ingbritsen) are banning them as performance enhancing. Surely they are simply performance equalizing?
