Kipyegon is simply too good.

bladerunner wrote:

Armstronglivs wrote:

Black athletes in the US are successful in every kind of sport - and that was long before the practice of doping became a commonplace. Track, football, basketball, boxing, tennis and so on - even golf. But we also see other racial and ethnic groups succeeding in US sports. We don't see that in E Africa, where it is only distance running - a doper's sport if there ever was one.

Athletes like Hassan and Obiri come from countries that have a doping culture in sports. That there is more testing in the US doesn't mean they will be prevented from doping - as we have seen from those few US athletes that have been caught. But wherever there is doping most aren't caught - with the recent glaring exception of Kenya, where doping clearly lacks a sophisticated basis amongst many athletes.

However, much of this distracts from my fundamental point which is not that athletes from Africa (and Jamaica) are successful - any country can produce top athletes - but their degree of success is so disproportionate it suggest they are almost a different species from everyone else. They aren't. But doping can make it look like that.

For those who think my views are somehow "racially" based, they aren't - I am also sceptical at the increased success of Norwegian athletes today.

You start with the conclusion: Africans must be doping. And even if they don't grow up or live in Africa, they also must be doping.

And no, black athletes have not done well in golf. One exception. How many black golfers on the PGA tour now? Zero. Which shows it's about access to the game, cost, and even interest in the game.

And you just ignored my main point. There has to be a genetic component to this. How can black Americans vastly outnumber white Americans in football and basketball when they make up only 12 percent of the population? Why is there almost never a white sprinter in any major competition? It isn't due to lack of effort or access.

Hassan was a refugee to the Netherlands and then becomes a world class runner. Was she doping as a teenager? Pretty unlikely. I would suggest that genetics play a far bigger role than anyone wants to acknowledge.