Why do American men distance runners suck?

If genetics were purely the reason Africans dominate long-distance running, then it's hard to imagine how any non-African (European, Asian, South American, etc.) could ever compete with them (and occasionally they do).

WiJu wrote:

With my help he could.

bravo to possibly the greatest post ever

Because they can. Wakka wakka wakka!

Pre is dead. Sorry to upset you. It may be a late-breaking news item for you.

acura lover wrote:

um.... troll?

Thank you! One of the more obvious ones too. Tri4ever? Come on.

tri4ever wrote:

And Meb and Kalid don't count, they were born and raised outside of the US.

I think you can answer your own question. If they don't count, why not? Don't you think that whatever differentiates them from the Ryan Halls, Dathan Ritzenheins, and Adam Gouchers of the world also happens to be the key to answering your question?

ALL YOU REDNECKS FORGET BILLY MILLS AND BOB KEMPAINEN.

I disagree, I don't think they suck I believe we are on an upswing. We are fighting a huge current as shown here by txRUNNERgirl. Our society has gone down the tubes. I took class pictures from my 4 kids and layed them on the dining room table next to a picture from my 5th grade class of 42 years ago. There was a total of 1 "heavy" kid, he surely wasn't obese, in my class. I spotted 16 obese kids in the current photos.

When I began teaching in 1975 I had my PE classes run a mile at the start of each gym class. The slowest kid had asthma and ran a little under 11 minutes. He was the only kid in the school with an inhaler. I taught 7th-10th grade. I had 14 girls in the school that broke 6 minutes for the mile. There were only 320 kids in the school. I now teach science in a high school with over 500 kids. The gym teacher times the kids in the mile 3 x per year. Last year, there were two girls under 6 minutes and 5 guys. We have a list of the 50 or so kids in the school who use an inhaler on a regular basis.

Despite being in the center of town, there are not more than a handfull of kids that walk to school. If they take the bus, their parents usually bring them to the bus stop and keep them in the warm car until the bus stops.

Runners like Webb, Ritz, Lincoln, and Robison prove US distance running is in the best shape it has been in for nearly a quarter century. In just the last 18 months the US has had an American record in the steeplechase (lincoln) and the 2 mile (Webb) along with Robison blazing half mile and Ritz impressive 10k. The UK would be thrilled to have that kind of talent.

Oh why can't the UK compete with the US. Where is the next Coe and Cram.

Even Spain is starting to fall behind the US.

Poor Europe.........

Because assholes like you drag them down with your own negativity and mediocrity.

If genetics were purely the reason Africans dominate long-distance running, then it's hard to imagine how any non-African (European, Asian, South American, etc.) could ever compete with them (and occasionally they do).[/quote]

for every great white hope (Motram, Kennedy, Dieter the cheater, etc)there are a hundred East Africans you don't even know their names. And then for every East African who can run with our great white hopes, there are a hundred East African dudes who can probably run about 14 minutes for 5k who don't even know competitive running exists. I once witnessed an experiment in Italy. Someone picked up a homeless Ethiopian man off the streets of Rome and trained him for a month. He ran 14.35 barefooted and he looked very graceful in doing so as if he was genetically gifted. What a big f***ing surprise! What a big f***ing surprise that one family in Ethiopia can produce two guys who run 12.40s or better (Kenny and Tariku), but entire nations on this planet can't and never will find one guy to ever break 13 minutes.

I once ran with a hgh school cross country team. They were doing a tempo run that day and I decided to join them. About 5 minutes into the run I found myself running with four skinny black kids. Before I knew it I was under siege. They were taking turns, throwing in surges trying to break me and yeah ... they were speaking a language I couldn't understand. I watched them from the corner of my eye, so graceful, so light on their feet. I'm a decent runner in my own right but my credential came with very hard work in highly organised settings, but these kids were just playing around keeping up with me.They were from Burundi and when I told their coach "you must have a good team" he replied "yeah, but unfortunately I only have four of them" (from Burundi ...the others 20+ team members were locals.

tri4ever wrote:

Now, if PRE was around now, he'd beat them.

Of course, troll.

delay? wrote:

altho i do agree... guys like Khalid who join the US after getting big cause corporations can throw money at them don't really "count" as an American distance runner. But hey, I would do the same thing if some guy from Nike or New Balance was going to throw $$$'s at me to change my citizenship.

You, sir, are grossly ignorant. KK came to the US LONG before he had a shoe sponsor. And he sure as hell counts, he's an integral part of the bar being raised in the marathon in the US.

You are pretty much the same way that I think. But then again in a country of 300,000,000 people I know that there has got to be a chance that at least the population of Kenya (which I don't know) there is the same talent in this country.

Geting that talent to participate and strive here just isn't the same as in Kenya, where the incentive is so much more. I thought I had it a little rough growing up in a broken home with a young mom to support me. No hs diploma but she could get a factory job and buy a 90 year old home. We had food and clothes( even if they were hand-me-downs). And sometimes when she was layed off the phone got shut off and I had to eat vegetable soup for a month every night, I never felt that my life would be constant hardship and my only way out of constant struggle and an early demise was to run.

Genetic factor, that has the potential to be the dumbest post I've ever seen. They took a homeless ethiopian off the streets of rome? Come on now. That sounds like the worst science experiment ever. And I highly doubt there are a hundred east africans who have the type of range that Mottram has.

Not only that he was homeless, but he looked old too.I'm not lying but you can believe what you want.

Motram is in a class of his own. He is trully awsome but yet there are quite a few East Africans who beat him on a consistent basis. He ran great in his last few races and I hope he continues to do so but I bet you I can find several names off the world lists who have PRs faster than his, but yet you and many others (including myself) who've never heard of tem.

East Africans may have much more genetic depth than most others, but that doesn't mean that they have the market entirely cornered.

rrrunnning3 wrote:

Man..I wish these threads would get either deleted or consolidated. How many times can the same topic come up?

No kidding. I'm really tired of this stupid question as well. Perhaps Wejo should just post it on the front page, why Africans are better than Americans.

By the way, kipkoech hits the nail on the head.

genetic factor wrote:

I once witnessed an experiment in Italy. Someone picked up a homeless Ethiopian man off the streets of Rome and trained him for a month. He ran 14.35 barefooted and he looked very graceful in doing so as if he was genetically gifted.

That's intersting. I one time witnessed someone picking up a homeless Canadian pulled off the streets of NYC. In a month's time, he won a gold medal in the luge. He was pretty graceful too.