Why is the United States not as competitive as East Africa in distance events?

I was at a training camp last summer where average runners like me (3:30 marathoner) were paired up/coached by professional Kenyans, all of whom have run a 2:20 marathon or faster.

These Kenyan's have a saying about American runners, that we "take the easy days too hard and the hard days too easy". When we would warm up before a tempo run or interval workout, we were running so slow it felt like I could walk faster than that. On the days when they run doubles (most days) one workout is hard and one is EASY. When it comes to fast recovery, these guys are amazing.

They are also generally very calm, peaceful, lovely people who don't get stressed out over sh!t that doesn't matter.

Quality training wrote:

They are also generally very calm, peaceful, lovely people who don't get stressed out over sh!t that doesn't matter.

Which is obviously the key to running fast. In fact, why not ditch the hard workouts and spend your time meditating instead?

It is somewhat genetics but not, mainly just life style choices. One, they have less body fat and thinner frames due to the fact that they eat very little food, I know kid from ethiopia who ate coffee and corn. They eat natural food, not crappy processed food. Two, they run everywhere, walk everywhere, never sit down. They are active their entire lives, so they have more body control, and are just used to running. Case in point, they have 18,000 miles by age 17, most american kids will have only 4000, depending on who you are. So being more active before puberty has been shown to affect you're entire life. They train well. Meaning instead of hammering everything out as fast as they can, they only do their hard workouts fast. Everything else is just jogging, chilling out, going for long runs. Americans today, everything is fast, everything. You're whole goal is to be fast during training. Also, they have the society forcing them to become great runners, because since they are poor, they're situation predisposes them to distance running, and you can make money off it, why not run?

impossible goals wrote:

Case in point, they have 18,000 miles by age 17, most american kids will have only 4000, depending on who you are.

I'm not denying an innate advantage or suggesting that if person x runs enough, they will be world class, but I think this is a really interesting point.

In Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers" he suggests that people who are elite/world class/extremely good at something put in 10,000 hours of work into it and become good at about the point they get to 10,000 hours. Obviously it's debatable whether this applies to every activity, especially running.

Still, it would be interesting to compare the lifetime miles of elite Kenyan and Ethiopian runners and compare them to the lifetime miles, or even miles before the age of 15, 18, and 22 of Galen Rupp or Chris Solinsky or whoever and see what one gets.

It is epigenetics not genetics. There is an interaction of environment with proteins that regulate our gene expression. Hence no one has found a smoking gun (gene) related to performance. Modern conveniences are altering the epigenetic of our parents and their offspring in ways we are just beginning to understand. When Ethiopia and Kenya become completely Westernized in one more generation then their runners will be just like the Europeans and Americans!!! Lol

They have 18,000 miles by 17 years old. What white man told you this, go get your $ back ass hold.

Scoops, I know the book you are talking about. "Outliers" is interesting, but it doesn't apply in every case. We can argue for days about what "innate talent" really is.

Take a look at Japan, for instance, which is another well-known "running country." They still have far more sub 2:10 marathoners than the USA on a year-by-year basis, and this is because from Middle School to the Professional level, their training programs are geared to 10km-to-marathon distances, whereas the American middle school and high school program emphasizes speed over distance from 100meters to 5km. You don't see Japanese runners doing a lot of super fast 200 meter repeats!

Dont kid yourself. Soccer is not that popular in Kenya.

They dont do 200s because they are not a fast twitch people.

Kenyans are faster at distance races because they are more talented. Domination would be greater if it werent for disease, poverty, poor nutrition etc.. in East Africa. Ethiopia even more so.

I've trained with a WR holder over 10k and 2 x WXC champ along with many other notable east africans. They DO NOT train harder or have some magic cultural recipe. They are extremely gifted, PERIOD

Alright, buddy. If that makes you feel better. Why race at all then? They're just going to beat me anyhow since they're gifted and I'm not...defeatist thinking that will lead to the further decline of the USA in the not too distant future.

Scoops wrote:

Why is the United States not as competitive as East Africa in distance events?

Answer the question.

Because Kenya is in East Africa.

We don't care about things that can't be controlled.

A few sub 13 5k and a sub 27 10k are all you need to know. It wasn't done before. These times are being reflected in HS times.

Do the best you can, dont be deterred. Just know the talent pool in East Africa is like no where else. Its OK

Overall mentality has to change. Scott Bauhs interview - pathetic!

Scoops wrote:

Answer the question.

why can't East Africans run the 100-400 as well as US athletes (or those from West African nations)?

Moor croft solo'd 13:00 nearly 30 yrs ago. Only a handful of westerners have bettered that since -- and nearly all of those performances have come in the last 3 years.

Coe ran 1:41.73 30 yrs ago. No westerners have come close to that since.

Coe, Ovett ,Cram, and Scott ran sub 3:48 nearly yrs ago. Only one westerner has done that since.

All of those times would still be competitive today.

Read the writing on the wall folks. The physical capabilities of Westerners have been in decline for a couple of generations now.

I pose a similar question: "Why is the US not as competitive as Canadians in ice hockey" Is there a Canadian ice hockey gene? Hmmm.

Several books address the question at hand:

Outliers

Bounce

Talent is Overrated

Train Hard, Win Easy

More Fire

I agree with you 100%. I am Kenyan who grew up in the farm like all the elite Kenyan runners,everything we do helps in shaping our running capabilities. Most of the kids in Kenya who live in urban areas today are like any other kid in the western world. These kids grow up obese,lazy &spoil. Kenya and Africa in general are growing rapidly that a lot of people are going to be living in the cities this is going to change the lifestyle of the population and it is going to affect running. I think obese Kenyans are going to be faster than obese Americans though, let us not celebrate too much.

ahem... wrote:

Clubber Lange wrote:

Ethiopia and Kenya have more genetically gifted runners that are more driven to succeed by their economic circumstance than American runners.

More genetically gifted than Hall, Ritz, Rupp, Solinsky, Mottram (not American of course, but same European ancestry), Webb, Flanagan, Radcliffe, etc?

I think that there are a lot of Americans who are as genetically gifted as the East Africans, but such a tiny percentage of these people run that the US just doesn't have the numbers to compete or to generate that truly top-of-the-heap runner.

If running were the number one sport in the US and he best way for kids to get rich or leave poverty behind, then the US running would be on par with the East Africans.

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Well, that's a BIG 'if'. I don't think poverty is the main reason for success in running. There are MANY poor countries in this world, just FYI.