In 2023 Pluto made a brief ingress into Aquarius, marking a significant generational shift, Saturn entering Pisces, and a series of four Mercury retrogrades in Earth signs that challenged structures and routines. This likely accounts for the new era of White athletic, cultural and spiritual dominance.
Rojo, you aren't really searching for an answer, are you?
I most definitely am. We just finished recording this week's podcast and spent a lot of tiem on this topic.
I can think of a lot of reasons. Some combo of:
1) More altitude training. Most Western athletes used to spend little time at altitude (Bob Kennedy is a perfect example). If you are an altitude responder, altitude is like legalized doping.
2) More drug testing. Cutting out the obvious cheats who we all knew were doping is just the tip of the iceberg. As some have pointed out, it's quite possible Western athletes would be more sophisticated in their doping and better able to get away with it.
3) Super shoes. I'm open to the idea that they help Westen athletes more and give them the biomechanical efficiency to train more often at faster speeds - maybe faster speeds that African athletes are naturally able to train at.
4) Double threshold/coaching. The Africans were on top for so long they are less likely to think they need to try new things.
5) Finances - The marathon is much more lucrative, so we certainly are losing some talent there. I mean do we think Gressier win the 10k if Cheptegei had stayed in the 10k? The world's #2 marathoner this year is Ethiopia's Tadese Takele. The Tokyo winner (2:03:23) ran 8:09 in the steeple in in 2021 when was 18 and won world junior silver. Kiplimo is only officially 24.
I think that super shoes favours caucasians more than Africans for some reason.
The front of the 5000m final was very pale.
Now this is the type of argument I'm looking for.
Do Super shoes benefit help Western or heavy runners more?
I had a TOP Nike coach tell me when the shoes came out that he thought they helped the B+ runners way more than the A+ runners. His or her idea was that someone with a perfect stride and toe-off already doesn't benefit from them nearly as much as someone who doesn't.
I'd love to see some sort of study on this.
The super shoes help Caucasian who typically have larger calf’s and smaller Achilles. If you put the Africans is zoom victory 2 they’re still running the same times, the Caucasian would be pulling their calf’s without the pebax foam. Conversely I reckon the road super shoes gives the African an advantage.
Jimmy gressier was complaining that the 10k standard was too hard….
as someone who is constantly attacking Kenyans, he gives of “Grey zone vibes”
the whole French team is clearly utilising “Legal P.E.D” they’re are new versions of Bi carbs on the market that work on a pharmaceutical level to actually address Lactate - Gressier got a lactate reading of 24.mmol……
habz - 3:27
3 French men breaking 13 minutes and all making the final….
we have to ask ourselves truthfully why so many Diaspora East Africans are excelling, when they wouldn’t even make a team back home and have only levelled up because of resources in their current country kimeli, petros.
do you really think that the African train smart, the Ethiopians don’t understand progress overload have you seen one of Gudaf session it was ridiculous.
Rojo, you aren't really searching for an answer, are you?
I most definitely am. We just finished recording this week's podcast and spent a lot of tiem on this topic.
I can think of a lot of reasons. Some combo of:
1) More altitude training. Most Western athletes used to spend little time at altitude (Bob Kennedy is a perfect example). If you are an altitude responder, altitude is like legalized doping.
2) More drug testing. Cutting out the obvious cheats who we all knew were doping is just the tip of the iceberg. As some have pointed out, it's quite possible Western athletes would be more sophisticated in their doping and better able to get away with it.
3) Super shoes. I'm open to the idea that they help Westen athletes more and give them the biomechanical efficiency to train more often at faster speeds - maybe faster speeds that African athletes are naturally able to train at.
4) Double threshold/coaching. The Africans were on top for so long they are less likely to think they need to try new things.
5) Finances - The marathon is much more lucrative, so we certainly are losing some talent there. I mean do we think Gressier win the 10k if Cheptegei had stayed in the 10k? The world's #2 marathoner this year is Ethiopia's Tadese Takele. The Tokyo winner (2:03:23) ran 8:09 in the steeple in in 2021 when was 18 and won world junior silver. Kiplimo is only officially 24.
And the greatest 5000m championship runner Jakob stealing the 5000 show the last 3 years.
Jimmy gressier was complaining that the 10k standard was too hard….
as someone who is constantly attacking Kenyans, he gives of “Grey zone vibes”
the whole French team is clearly utilising “Legal P.E.D” they’re are new versions of Bi carbs on the market that work on a pharmaceutical level to actually address Lactate - Gressier got a lactate reading of 24.mmol……
habz - 3:27
3 French men breaking 13 minutes and all making the final….
we have to ask ourselves truthfully why so many Diaspora East Africans are excelling, when they wouldn’t even make a team back home and have only levelled up because of resources in their current country kimeli, petros.
do you really think that the African train smart, the Ethiopians don’t understand progress overload have you seen one of Gudaf session it was ridiculous.
Source for Gressier blood lactate of 24? That's more like what a 400 or 800 runner would register.
It's the ebb and flow of sports. The Africans set the standard and the rest of the world is catching up. I'm sure this isn't the end of Africa producing excellent distance runners. I don't understand why this is even a story.
It is a story because it is obviously interesting. People probably covered all of the factors already. One additional item is that confidence begets confidence and once others began to win they felt that the field was now open. Can't underestimate the psychological component of all this.
They don't benefit as much from the super shoes. The same problem happened with the super suits in swimming where some athletes benefited more than others (usually the larger athletes).
Yes, but why ignore the Olympics. The seeds of the change were already there in 2016 with athletes like Centro, Rupp and Jager competing for medals.
I think Rupp's siver was a harbinger because it was the first real indication in many years that non-Africans could legitimately compete. Manzano won silver that year also and non-Africans were 2, 4 and 5 in the 1500.
It's the ebb and flow of sports. The Africans set the standard and the rest of the world is catching up. I'm sure this isn't the end of Africa producing excellent distance runners. I don't understand why this is even a story.
It wasn't an ebb and flow. The tide came in and stayed for over 3 decades.
It's the ebb and flow of sports. The Africans set the standard and the rest of the world is catching up. I'm sure this isn't the end of Africa producing excellent distance runners. I don't understand why this is even a story.
It wasn't an ebb and flow. The tide came in and stayed for over 3 decades.
It started in earnest when EPO popped up decades ago and lasted until exasperated athletes began making noise about the lack of testing in Africa and of lack of testing of Africans period, and all of the bs incidents wherin some African who was caught would magically be exonerated via their “B sample” that could have been from anyone, since officials were so dodgy.
It wasn't an ebb and flow. The tide came in and stayed for over 3 decades.
It started in earnest when EPO popped up decades ago and lasted until exasperated athletes began making noise about the lack of testing in Africa and of lack of testing of Africans period, and all of the bs incidents wherin some African who was caught would magically be exonerated via their “B sample” that could have been from anyone, since officials were so dodgy.
This is partly bull sh1t. Why are they dominating the half marathon and marerhon? Please stop with your nonsense.
Jimmy gressier was complaining that the 10k standard was too hard….
as someone who is constantly attacking Kenyans, he gives of “Grey zone vibes”
the whole French team is clearly utilising “Legal P.E.D” they’re are new versions of Bi carbs on the market that work on a pharmaceutical level to actually address Lactate - Gressier got a lactate reading of 24.mmol……
habz - 3:27
3 French men breaking 13 minutes and all making the final….
we have to ask ourselves truthfully why so many Diaspora East Africans are excelling, when they wouldn’t even make a team back home and have only levelled up because of resources in their current country kimeli, petros.
do you really think that the African train smart, the Ethiopians don’t understand progress overload have you seen one of Gudaf session it was ridiculous.
Source for Gressier blood lactate of 24? That's more like what a 400 or 800 runner would register.
It was on his instagram story for a hill repeat….
he doesn’t have amazing foot speed but his anaerobic capacity has hugely changed…. Cancer medication work 🤐
It wasn't an ebb and flow. The tide came in and stayed for over 3 decades.
It started in earnest when EPO popped up decades ago and lasted until exasperated athletes began making noise about the lack of testing in Africa and of lack of testing of Africans period, and all of the bs incidents wherin some African who was caught would magically be exonerated via their “B sample” that could have been from anyone, since officials were so dodgy.
So now that you seem to be insinuating that the playing field has leveled, why is it that no non-Africans have run within 2:30 of the men’s half marathon record? Why is this?
Two years ago, I wrote a column about how from September 7, 1987-July 19, 2022, Africa born men totally dominated the men's distance events on the track at Worlds. They went 64-0 in the 1500, steeple, 5000 and 10,000 and swept all 4 golds at 15 straight world champs.
That African born win streak was snapped by Jake Wightman at the 2022 Eugene Worlds on July 19, 2022 (Ingebrigtsen would also win the 5k). Since then, the non-African born runners have been on a roll, as they've won 10 of 14 including all 4 track distance golds this year.
2022 - Jakob and Wightman win last 2 golds (El Bakkali and Cheptegei won 1st 2) 2023- Jakob and Kerr 2/4 2024 - Hocker and Jakob 2/4 2025 - Nade, Hocker, Gressier, Beamish. 4/4
Male African born athletes were beaten by a combined 0.76sec spread out among 4 events at WC2025. Bad luck/tactics? All the energy was spent getting enough sleep to win the 4x400, 400, 800, and marathon. Women seemed to do just fine.
When was the last time a man not born in Africa won one of the World Marathon Majors (if you exclude the ones in Chicago where fields every now and then are whittled down to allow an American a fifty-fifty chance to win on home turf before their career is over)?