well, Mama Wolde and Abibe Bikila do come to mind. I believe they were Ethiopian. When you take into consideration the country's political history(long civil wars, dictatorships and such) the infrastructure for developing athletes and providing them with competitive opportunities may have been somewhat limited.
Ethiopia had one of the most socially and politically wracked situations in modern history up until the '90's. Much more than even the Kenyans, the athletes have been subject to the dictates of their oppressive government policies. Add in the African boycotts of the '76 and '84 Olympics and a series of massive famines in the 70's and 80's, and guess what, they were lucky to field any athletes at all, much less of the caliber of Yifter, Kedir, etc..
Maybe Kenya and Ethiopia, two of the poorest nations on earth, are part of a huge drugging conspiracy, or maybe, just maybe, the myriad of environmental and genetic circumstances (tell me that having a massive pool of men of the 5'6"/120lb physique isn't in itself a major advantage) that allow them to be that extra few % points faster at the highest level have merit.
Doping suspicions are always going to swirl around EVERYONE at the top of our sport. Just look at the comments that Paula "clean sport" Radcliffe garners on this site. What I do know is that Gebrselassie engenders every positive psychological, and I dare say, spiritual quality to be found in a runner. And hell, he's at least partly responsible for Paul Tergat's marathon career!
That is exactly right. Ethiopia's history has a LOT to do with it. And we still see the names that he mentioned, along with others such as Miruts Yifter, etc. I'm actually not so sure as to the validity of ttc's statement that there were tons of serious runners prior. Of course there were runners, but I think as a population they were able to focus in on long-distance running much more with intranational issues (more or less) resolved.
XCTC wrote:
Ethiopia had one of the most socially and politically wracked situations in modern history up until the '90's. Much more than even the Kenyans, the athletes have been subject to the dictates of their oppressive government policies. Add in the African boycotts of the '76 and '84 Olympics and a series of massive famines in the 70's and 80's, and guess what, they were lucky to field any athletes at all, much less of the caliber of Yifter, Kedir, etc..
Maybe Kenya and Ethiopia, two of the poorest nations on earth, are part of a huge drugging conspiracy, or maybe, just maybe, the myriad of environmental and genetic circumstances (tell me that having a massive pool of men of the 5'6"/120lb physique isn't in itself a major advantage) that allow them to be that extra few % points faster at the highest level have merit.
Doping suspicions are always going to swirl around EVERYONE at the top of our sport. Just look at the comments that Paula "clean sport" Radcliffe garners on this site. What I do know is that Gebrselassie engenders every positive psychological, and I dare say, spiritual quality to be found in a runner. And hell, he's at least partly responsible for Paul Tergat's marathon career!
great post. I agree completely
I've followed the sport since about 1966 and can say without any hesitation at all that Geb is the most inspiring and remarkable track athlete of that entire period. It's staggering that he's still "improving" in 2006, a full 13 years after he hit the top of the world class ranks.
XCTC wrote:
...maybe, just maybe, the myriad of environmental and genetic circumstances (tell me that having a massive pool of men of the 5'6"/120lb physique isn't in itself a major advantage) that allow them to be that extra few % points faster at the highest level have merit.
This is an interesting insight that is rarely mentioned in "why the Africans are so good" arguments. I have a picture on my wall of the '04 Athens 10,000 with Bekele, Sihine, and Geb all in a row from the side. It is striking that they are almost exactly the same height and build. You could interchange their heads and come up with a very similar picture.
Of course bigger runners can succeed, but imagine if at least half of the U.S. population were built along the lines of Ritz, Rohatinsky, Tebo, etc., to use some current examples.
ttc wrote:
Tuone Udaina wrote:And did you ever read that article showing a higher O2 bonding rate for Ethiopian hemoglobin than that found in any other blood sample?
Then why weren't the Ethiopians dominating the distance scene far before the mid 90's? Sure they're not a huge population, but they still had serious runners prior. We're also not talking about them just being world dominant, but also lots better than the drug-enhanced cheats who've been caught. Remember reading the article about the biker who experimented with EPO and some of the other drugs? Nothing short of dramatic, insane improvement, and he didn't even know what he was doing with the dope. Yet Geb and Bekele could wipe the track with the drug-engineered cheats. I don't believe it.
A quick look at the history of the men's World X-C race since 1980 shows that Ethiopians scored as follows:
1981: 2, 7, 13, 14, 15
1982: 1, 6, 12, 16
1983: 1, 14, 20, 22, 23, 24
1984: 8, 9, 16, 24
1985: 3, 4, 6, 28
1986: 2, 4, 26, 27, 28
1987: 4, 17, 27
1988: 5, 10, 12, 20, 23
1989: 5, 13, 27, 33, 37
1990: 4, 8, 14, 19, 24
Geb, in the 1990s, did not come out of nowhere. There was a very solid (to say the least) tradition of distance running in Ethiopia.