20 Japanese men just broke 2:10 at the 2022 Tokyo Marathon

In terms of the big sports in the US, the only one they are relevant in is baseball, which is essentially a no-contact sport where success is a combination of athleticism and extraordinary eye sight.

Of course the US has enough resources to produce better distance running results. But aside from a handful of Letsrun posters almost no one is interested in doing so.

The US was much better in marathon in the world back in the 70's than today. The times run in the men's marathon of that era would be competitive in the US now. And the sport was not even professionalized. The money in marathon in the 1970's was a fraction of what it is today. And yet with so much more money in the sport, the US has got much worse while other countries have gotten so much better.

False. The marathon is the *weakest* event in distance running. It's the domain of people who can't hack it on the track. There's a reason Japanese runners focus on the marathon: They know they can't compete in track! Don't believe me? Take a look at Japan's national distance records on the track:

1500 - 3:35.42
3,000 - 7:40.09
5,000 - 13:08.40
10,000 - 27:18.75

Those times are far below the level of what our top guys are running in the US.

So what if Japan produces a bunch of 2:08 men. That's not good enough to win medals. Their men and women haven't won any medals at the last two Olympics in the marathon, whereas the US has won 2, along with multiple medals on the track.

Not only that, their national record holder in the marathon finished more than two minutes behind Galen Rupp at last fall's Chicago marathon!

Japan has impressive depth of very good runners in the marathon, but stop acting as if they are far superior to the US. They are not. Their top marathon guys are not of the same caliber of runner overall as Grant Fisher, Woody Kincaid, Sean McGorty, Joe Klecker, Cooper Teare, Cole Hocker, Eric Jenkins, Ben True, et al.

It's like they must have a factory producing high performance marathon runners off a conveyor belt over there lol

thought Rojo's comments here were very interesting regarding lack of Japanese success in running on the track compared to Americans, esp all american NCAA x-country runners who are, like me, almost all of european descent

The Japanese have 4 (3.5 if you count Hakim Sani Brown as half japanese) sub-10 second 100 meter runners!

One country in Asia alone has produced more sub-10 second 100 meters athletes than every white nation in the world together has produced. America has never produced a white sub-10 second 100 meter runner, Japan has produced 4(3.5) and has several more now on the edge of going sub 10

the 100 meters is probably the one track event that emphasizes genetic endowment the most. i have no doubt the Japanese could produce 3:4x milers and 12:xx 5k runners, but they are a people who obsess over running in only the extreme ends and have little regard for the event in between.

It seems Japanese are also genetically designed for sprinting as well as marathoning and Judo and wrestling and increasingly boxing

I see 1000s of young white men in every Marathon Ive ever watched. they aren't training?

Weird pack of lies and racist comments. Actually, Japan has produced 3 under 10 Japanese guys vs 4 from any other white nation. The US has produced no sub 10 white guy due to inherent racism in the event in the country. If you claim silly things like the Japanese can produce 3:40 milers and 12:00 5k runners then we'll also have to say that a Sweden can produce 2:01 marathoners galore and Greece 9.60 100 meter runners by the dozen, and Nigeria can have hundreds of guys under 3:25, you know, but only if they wanted to....

Also, genetically designed for judo and wrestling?? Boxing?? They're non-existent in the weight classes that matter. In Japans own sport -Judo, when was the last time they won the gold in the heavy division? The premier division. The guy that is the worlds best right now is Krpalek from the Czech Republic. So I guess the Czechs are genetically designed for judo?

I will eliminate all half-africans or people who are not purely white, asian, arabic etc so I excluded patrick johnson, sani brown, marcell jacobs but if we included them and credit them as 50%, japan still wins -having produced more sub 10seconds 100 meters runners than the entire white world, in fact Arabs have produced as many as all white. So too have chinese.

Japan sub 10 second 100 meters

- kiryu

- yamagata

- koike

Europe/America/New Zealand/Australia/Canada sub 10 second 100 meters

- lemaitre

- felipe tortu

Others

- Adam Gemili (arab)

- Guliyev (turkish)

- bingtian (china)

-zhenye (china)

What a weirdo. I dont really care about 100 meters as most people dont but WTH?

I mean you dont realize who the Turkish are??? Turkish are 90% + white. Its a whiter country than the US. Geebus. Even though Guliyev is not even Turkish, but an Azerbaijani with a Russian background.

Um, and Gemili is not a friggin arab.

ALso some absolutely ridiculous stuff being said here. THe marathon attracts almost all the top level distance talent (5k, 10k) - why? Because, it is the most lucrative event in running. Purses for winning high level marathons like tokyo approach $ 400k. High level marathoners are millionaires even if they aren't the top dogs, what 5k runner or 10k is a millionaire? Maybe Rupp but he runs the marathon.

This is why all the best african, japanese, european and yes, american runners run it (hall, rupp were the best american distance runners of recent times)

Marathon has the best global distance running talent. It is a referendum on which countries possess running talent.

ok lets say gemeli and guliyev are white

well then lets say the 2 chinese runners are asian or mongoloid, then the asians still win

5 to 4

every weight class matters lol

best women wrestlers and judokas are Japanese

What do the Asians win? I would hope they have had some runners develop into top level in one discipline at least. They have 10x the population of Europeans. Slightly better in 100m sure, but nothing in the 200, 400, 400H, 800, 1500, 3000, 5000, & 10000. No contest. Just leave it be.

Ah, suure. Shall we include children and paralympics too?

1) Drew Hunter alone is worth more than 99% of marathoners, and he hasn't even been close to a medal.

2) All European and American runners, and many African runners first make their fame and fortune in the 5&10, then move to the marathon...after they age and slow down. Marathon is a side show that's paid well.