Why don't you see many Asians running in college in the US?

Track and Field don't pay bills.

Bill guy wrote:

Track and Field don't pay bills.

That doesn't mean anything

Not trying to be racist, but as an Asian I have to say we have much less running talent compared than other races. A 17 min 5k for an Asian is probably equal to a 16 min 5k for a caucasian. It's apparent at my mostly Asian HS, where the top runner ran a 16 min 5k, whereas the top runner at a mostly white HS would run 15 min. While it's more PC to say that we're more focused on academics, the truth is that we can't keep up in races.

So letsrun has shifted their racism from blacks to Asians now?

I don't know about other Asians (Korea, China etc.), but the Japan University track scene has a huge race to work towards to (New Years Hakone Relay) that tons of athletes dream about running one day, so they don't need to go to the US for track. idk about the ones that are in HS in the US and go to college there.

http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/ncaa-demographics-database

Database I found interesting.

johnfromSJ wrote:

Not trying to be racist, but as an Asian I have to say we have much less running talent compared than other races. A 17 min 5k for an Asian is probably equal to a 16 min 5k for a caucasian. It's apparent at my mostly Asian HS, where the top runner ran a 16 min 5k, whereas the top runner at a mostly white HS would run 15 min. While it's more PC to say that we're more focused on academics, the truth is that we can't keep up in races.

I wish this type of thing is a more open thing to talk about.

1. Asians are a minority, so there is a smaller population to draw talent from.

2. Asian culture places education over sports.

3. Possibly genetics plays a role.

For example, it's rare to see an Asian American in basketball like Jeremy Lin.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/sports/basketball/tight-knit-family-shares-lins-achievement.html

"Growing up, some of my mom's friends would tell her that she was wasting everyone's time by letting me play so much basketball."

japaneezers have much more slow twitch dominant people, but their sprinters have better results than distance runners, multiple sub 10s. race walking is a different thing. it can't be about dna

facts and reason wrote:

1. Asians are a minority, so there is a smaller population to draw talent from.

2. Asian culture places education over sports.

3. Possibly genetics plays a role.

For example, it's rare to see an Asian American in basketball like Jeremy Lin.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/sports/basketball/tight-knit-family-shares-lins-achievement.html

"Growing up, some of my mom's friends would tell her that she was wasting everyone's time by letting me play so much basketball."

1. Even in high schools that are dominated Asians with XC teams dominated by Asians, the fact is that the fastest runners are generally white.

2. So do families of any other demographics. It isn't common for people to think sports are more important than education.

3. Maybe, but this is such a taboo thing to talk about. We are never going to get actual answers on this.

Of course, I am not trying to be racist, but this is just such a difficult thing to talk about

I don't want to be racist, but why are 'Mericans so useless at cricket and orienteering? Couldn't possibly be just a cultural thing.

johnfromSJ wrote:

Not trying to be racist, but as an Asian I have to say we have much less running talent compared than other races. A 17 min 5k for an Asian is probably equal to a 16 min 5k for a caucasian. It's apparent at my mostly Asian HS, where the top runner ran a 16 min 5k, whereas the top runner at a mostly white HS would run 15 min. While it's more PC to say that we're more focused on academics, the truth is that we can't keep up in races.

I feel like this is true, but only for distance running. Around my area, Asians are either a majority or a really big minority, yet in XC meets, all the varsity kids will be white and Latino, and occasionally you'll see an Asian. Using my school as an example, it's roughly 55% Asian and 35% Latino, yet on our varsity team, 5 of us are Latino, and all five of us are the ones usually scoring. But when you get to sprints, it's a bit more diverse. Our school only lets relay runners, top distance runners, and jumpers be varsity (my school is pretty trash, we usually don't even send a single kid to states), so going off of that metric, roughly half are Asian, a third are Latino, and a third are black.

johnfromSJ wrote:

Not trying to be racist, but as an Asian I have to say we have much less running talent compared than other races. A 17 min 5k for an Asian is probably equal to a 16 min 5k for a caucasian. It's apparent at my mostly Asian HS, where the top runner ran a 16 min 5k, whereas the top runner at a mostly white HS would run 15 min. While it's more PC to say that we're more focused on academics, the truth is that we can't keep up in races.

As a Chinese American (who grew up in San Jose a long time ago), I totally disagree. I don't know what my talent ceiling was, but I think it was at least 28:xx 10K. I didn't get there, but that's another story. If the Asian kids you know are slow, maybe they were a lot less active than me as a kid. I spent hours every day after school doing active stuff outdoors, which I never stopped (age 51 now).

That's not lack of talent. That's lack of interest. Just look at how fast Japanese distance runners are.

Also, look at how there aren't any fast Chinese guys from China in track. They aren't that different genetically (and there is surely a wider range/pool of genetics in China than Japan). The main difference is that there is a marathon/ekiden/distance running culture in Japan, but not China. I'm happy to see some interest from Chinese in trail running recently, and it's pretty clear there is talent there if you follow some of those races on irunfar.

That is a trend I notice as well. In high schools with a large Asian population as seen in many places in California and with a XC team dominated by Asians, the fastest runners tend to be non-Asian

Not true. Chinese and Japanese people literally have almost nothing in common in genetics.

facts and reason wrote:

1. Asians are a minority, so there is a smaller population to draw talent from.

2. Asian culture places education over sports.

3. Possibly genetics plays a role.

For example, it's rare to see an Asian American in basketball like Jeremy Lin.

"Growing up, some of my mom's friends would tell her that she was wasting everyone's time by letting me play so much basketball."

I'm Chinese American (second gen). I visited my grandfather twice in Taiwan in 1976 and 1984. Basketball was all my grandfather did! As a 70-something year old, he'd go down from the literal shack that he lived in (and where my dad grew up) and play basketball with high school kids. He was also doing sets of pullups at that age. My dad loves basketball, and was a weekend warrior in it until he was pretty old too. Of course the NBA is his favorite thing to watch. My dad would have been happy if I had basketball talent instead of running talent. (They never watched me run a race until I was in my mid-30s.)

david45 wrote:

Not true. Chinese and Japanese people literally have almost nothing in common in genetics.

Depends on how far back you go and who you are comparing to (European whites in this discussion). Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans have common ancestors 3000-3600 years ago.

Anyway, looking at the World Athletics site, only two guys from China in the database (born since 1987) have run under 29 for 10K. That just shows that they aren't trying when a random single Chinese American, me knows I had the talent to run under 29.

david45 wrote:

That is a trend I notice as well. In high schools with a large Asian population as seen in many places in California and with a XC team dominated by Asians, the fastest runners tend to be non-Asian

The 3200 school record holder (9:07) at the high school I graduated from is a Chinese American.