Mike McLeod the real gold medallist from 1984
Mike McLeod the real gold medallist from 1984
Running culture is by far the biggest indicator for a nations overall success in any sport because you need a good amount of the population participating in order to find those rare humans with the capacity to be truly world class. That's why I laugh when for example people compare GB population and the US since it's a disingenuous position to take. The amount of people running at a high level in each nation (let's say sub elite and beyond) is far closer than you'd think because GB has a far stronger mid and long distance culture than the US. Our potential pool is much larger yes but so many of those people don't count because they have never ran in their life. There are recreational guys here who think they're fast and they'd get instantly humbled in a road race in GB. Even further with the Japanese of course.
Put it this way, Cuba is a tiny country with a small population so why is it that they have such a large share of Olympic medals in boxing? There's nothing about Cuban genetics that makes them better at boxing. It's not like they have freakishly long limbs for their size the way people taut Kenyan calves as if that part of your body can take you from 2:12 to 2:04. Cubans are good at boxing because every damn kid there is taught to box at a young age and many do this throughout their life. Same with East Africans. In the last few years we've seen weakness in Kenya when it comes to the 5000m so where are the genetics now? Those athletes obviously have many of the same physical characteristics as their predecessors, they are just simply not as talented. Luck of the draw, sometimes the right guys just haven't come along quite yet.
All of that was to say that when someone says East Africans are genetically better at distance running than other people take it as a smart way of them saying that those Africans don't have to work as hard, which is patently false. In fact some believe the same about Cubans, that they are genetically predisposed because they have a "fiery temper", pure garbage. Some people will say anything if it means they don't have to admit that they're getting outworked every single day.
To Rank A Country in an event I go by Tilastopaja's All Time top 1000 list, How many each Country has in the top Thousand as of Today.
5000 Men
1. Kenya 300
2. Ethiopia 109
3. USA 92
4. Great Britain 50
5. Morrocco 43
6. Spain 38
7. France 27
10000 Men
1. Kenya 287
2. Ethiopia 106
3. USA 96
4. Japan 91
5. Great Britain 43
6. Spain 29
So they are the 5th Best in both events in my way of ranking them, it is an objective way of looking at it, there are other ways to rank them if you want.
They've given up trying to keep up with doped East Africans who are not tested to the same extent. Testing has recently improved in Kenya hence the spate of doping busts.
To understand the level of doping in sports take a look at this.
They also have the advantage of living at altitude. Its nothing to do with genes. Kenyans with the same genes but born in lower altitude areas of Kenya have zero success.
As others have said, the strong UK tradition in 800/1500 is continued thanks to organizations such as the British Milers Club.
I think that many of the people who might have become top 5k/10k runners in the past in the UK are now triathletes. Adding the biking and swimming greatly narrows the number of nations that can be competitive.
Two Americans of non-African origin have broken 27 in the 10000m in the past decade and many have run in the 27:20s and 27:30s. Americans to break 13 in the 2000s include not only Lagat, Chelimo, and Lomong, but also Tegenkamp, Solinsky, Kincaid, Rupp, and Ritzenhein.
In the 10000m, Lomong and Kipchirchir ran 27:04/27:07, while Meb and Abdi ran 27:13/27:16 and Leonard Korir 27:20, but there were also, in addition to Rupp 26:44 and Solinsky 26:59, Nenow, Ritzenhein, Curtis, Salazar, Tim Nelson, Tegenkamp, and Virgin in the 27:20s.