Why is the domination in distance running events by African nations so recent?

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  • No recent

    Anonymous Poster

    3 years ago 08/01/2020 12:22pm EDT
    re: david45

    david45 wrote:

    If you look at the results in the Olympics in the past, runners from places like Kenya or Ethiopia didn't dominate in the distance running events until around the 1990s and later. Why was this domination so recent even though these countries always had a ton of talented runners?

    Its not really that recent; they have been dominating for the past 40 years (since the 80s). This is about 50% of the time we have had modern athletics and 33% of the time since the re-establishment of the Olympics in 1896.

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    david45

    Member since 03/14/2020.

    1,817 posts. Last post 3 months ago.
    3 years ago 08/01/2020 12:25pm EDT
    re: No recent

    No recent wrote:

    david45 wrote:

    If you look at the results in the Olympics in the past, runners from places like Kenya or Ethiopia didn't dominate in the distance running events until around the 1990s and later. Why was this domination so recent even though these countries always had a ton of talented runners?

    Its not really that recent; they have been dominating for the past 40 years (since the 80s). This is about 50% of the time we have had modern athletics and 33% of the time since the re-establishment of the Olympics in 1896.

    If you look at the results of the 1500 meter race in the 1984 Olympics (

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1984_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_1500_metres

    ), you would see none of the medalists were from Africa.

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    restrunner

    Member since 05/11/2019.

    325 posts. Last post 2 days ago.
    3 years ago 08/01/2020 1:44pm EDT
    re: david45

    david45 wrote:

    If you look at the results of the 1500 meter race in the 1984 Olympics you would see none of the medalists were from Africa.

    3 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronce medals in other running events.

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    rekrunner

    Member since 09/27/2015.

    12,448 posts. Last post 6 hours ago.
    3 years ago 08/01/2020 3:28pm EDT
    re: david45

    david45 wrote:

    If you look at the results in the Olympics in the past, runners from places like Kenya or Ethiopia didn't dominate in the distance running events until around the 1990s and later. Why was this domination so recent even though these countries always had a ton of talented runners?

    Both Kenya and Ethiopia starting dominating World Cross country in the 1980s both at senior and junior levels.

    Getting into European meets and being considered for races requires management, agents, and a level of organization that did not exist in East African until the '90s.

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