Star wrote:
Most African nations boycotted the 1976 Olympics.
Kenya boycotted 1980
Ethiopia boycotted 1984
They had big wins in 1964, 1968 and 1988
They’ve been good for a while.
Bikli in 64 is highly suspicious. An Ethipian victorious on the streets of Rome only a couple of decades after Mussolini had conquered Ethiopia. giving the emperor Halie Salasie revenge. A good story, just a bit too good.
The GDR modelled much of their athletics system on what Ethiopia had in the 60's. Bikli trained in the GDR and cheats like Beyer and Straub trained in Ethiopia.
Keino in 1968 was one of the most suspicious performances in history. No form that summer, collapses in the 10000m, then climbs literally out of his hospital bed to run the equivalent of 3:24 and destroy Jim Ryun who he had never beaten before.
Last year he was accused of embezzling millions from young Kenyan athletes but got off with it due to political intervention.
88 Kenya had several golds from unknown athletes who were based in the USA, where hgh had come out a few years before and was changing the landscape of middle-distance running (Aouita was another user).
It's true that East Africans dominated xcountry from the early 80's. Several of the Kenyans from the teams of that decade were busted.
From the early 90s EPO became widely available. It might even have been a factor in 88. As Mindweak said, the GDR and Soviet Bloc coaches and doctors moved to Africa, as well as Italians after blood doping became illegal in Italy.
Of course the huge population growth of Africa has played a part, although it certainly doesn't explain why Africans are LESS dominant now than 20 years ago.
Another reason is the decline of European and Australasian running. That's due to a number of things, including much more money in other sports especially soccer, obesity and xBox, population plateauing or even declining, and the perception (encouraged here) that East Africans are different from other humans and posses genetic advantages which make it near impossible for other races to compete with them.