Statistically speaking, the vast majority of the top 100 sprinters of all time based on PR are not Caucasian males. Does that make me racist for stating objective data?
Popular rhetoric claims that it’s impossible to be racist against white people.
No? I think Coevett and rekrunner are more obsessed 🤔
I'm not obsessed with either race or genetics, per se. I think too many are too quick to play the race card. They are also too quick to reduce the discussion to just genetics, creating a false choice.
I think performance is linked to a combination of significant factors, including genetics, environment, adaptation, culture, diet, bodyweight, bodyshape, and mentality. It has very little to do with the 150 or so genes that determine the amount of melanin in their skin. For example, West Africans and East Africans are the same race, but have very different running performance profiles. And both are different from black Indians and Aborigines.
For endurance running, it is not the adaptations to sunlight that I find relevant, but the adaptations to oxygen.
No? I think Coevett and rekrunner are more obsessed 🤔
I'm not obsessed with either race or genetics, per se. I think too many are too quick to play the race card. They are also too quick to reduce the discussion to just genetics, creating a false choice.
I think performance is linked to a combination of significant factors, including genetics, environment, adaptation, culture, diet, bodyweight, bodyshape, and mentality. It has very little to do with the 150 or so genes that determine the amount of melanin in their skin. For example, West Africans and East Africans are the same race, but have very different running performance profiles. And both are different from black Indians and Aborigines.
For endurance running, it is not the adaptations to sunlight that I find relevant, but the adaptations to oxygen.
Got it, rojo. Although you think race is a significant factor, you are not a racist because other factors like diet also matter in your opinion.
I don't know why it enrages people for me to state something so obvious - genetics are a big deal in running. I mean in your own running you know it's true. A 14:15 collegian doesn't think, "If only I'd worked harder I would have run 12:45 and won NCAAs."
But if we apply it to a whole country of people for some reason, people freak out.
Maybe this will help you understand:
Some individuals are more intelligent than others. But if we apply it to a whole race of people for some reason, people freak out.
2) Can you someone please explain to me why the announcer is talking in English? The only thing I can think of is they are trying to get the Japanese used to "hearing English."
I don't know why it enrages people for me to state something so obvious - genetics are a big deal in running. I mean in your own running you know it's true. A 14:15 collegian doesn't think, "If only I'd worked harder I would have run 12:45 and won NCAAs."
But if we apply it to a whole country of people for some reason, people freak out.
straw man. No one is saying this here except for you
So do you think that Japanese are uniquely better suited to the marathon than a billion Chinese? Or Koreans? All of whom are very closely related genetically.
Or maybe, just maybe, there's also an environmental/cultural effect.
Oh, of course there is a cultural effect. I just think that alone doesn't completely explain the phenomenon.
It's like saying the reason Americans are so good at football is because they're genetically suited to it, when the real reason is because it's our national pastime, practically a religion for some people. Ekiden plays a similar role in Japanese culture. It's not that genetics don't matter on an individual basis, it's that genetic differences vary greatly within populations, and there's little significant difference between populations as a whole.
It's like saying the reason Americans are so good at football is because they're genetically suited to it, when the real reason is because it's our national pastime, practically a religion for some people. Ekiden plays a similar role in Japanese culture. It's not that genetics don't matter on an individual basis, it's that genetic differences vary greatly within populations, and there's little significant difference between populations as a whole.
I was going to say something similar, with the example of baseball.
Bringing up football, I'm afraid, doesn't help the "it's all environment" argument. The NFL is racially diverse as a whole, but if you look more closely, it is not very diverse within position. 80% of centers are white, 99.4% of cornerbacks are black, etc.
I realize why this is controversial, but I also think what is true is important. To me, it is so apparent that the answer to these kind of questions is "both": both genetics and cultural / environment factors matter.
I don't know why it enrages people for me to state something so obvious - genetics are a big deal in running. I mean in your own running you know it's true. A 14:15 collegian doesn't think, "If only I'd worked harder I would have run 12:45 and won NCAAs."
But if we apply it to a whole country of people for some reason, people freak out.
Their marathon training is interesting because the culture demands consistent work. High performers like a lot of distance runners are a minority in the US and much of the west.
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