Why are Americans Excellent in Sprinting but not in Distance Running?

It's not that Americans are poor at distance running it's that East Africans are exceptional.

And it's not that Americans are good at sprinting it's that people of West African descent are good at it.

on trial wrote:

It's not that Americans are poor at distance running it's that East Africans are exceptional.

And it's not that Americans are good at sprinting it's that people of West African descent are good at it.

True. It’s really only those two sides of the continent, for every sport too if they wanted

If you look at the world standings in distance running, on average, USA is very high up. Medals, etc.

I will write more later on this as it's an interesting topic but I am distracting by something right now.

a) jamaicans arent us citizens

b) i am trying to think of a us sprinter under 10s who wasnt involved in a ped story

Culturally (at least, 20-30 years ago) it was cool or at least acceptable to be a sprinter. Just about everyone would try it school at a young age & talented people would be noticed. Very few areas in the US promote / encourage distance run to children. Maybe 2nd tier soccer players (or other sports) get encouraged to run XC in their off season as cross training. But it is mostly rejects or kids that had parents that ran & went out of their way to get them into a running club. Our culture artificially makes it a much smaller talent pool that our runners are coming from.

on trial wrote:

it's not that Americans are good at sprinting it's that people of West African descent are good at it.

Then actual West Africans should be even better.

East Africans have no genetic advantage either, they just eat less and grow up skinnier. Americans are much fatter than in the past.

In the earlier 20th century, including Jesse Owens' day, black American sprinters were about dead even with sprinters of other "races" around the world. A long string of 10.3 runners and then 10.2 runners. The American whites then seemed to lose interest, and if there's any reason for that it's probably football and the racial divisions it developed after world war 2.

I don't even have to read through the thread to predict someone claiming racial differences in "type 2" muscle competition. To see how bunk that is, just look at powerlifting world records.

Because you took your slaves from west Africa and not east Africa.

Internetsherlock wrote:

what are some of the reasons for this massive difference?

Is it physiology , psychology ,culture or?

What do you guys think ....

In Sports Scientists dot com, Ross Tucker postulates that it is a combination of all these. He thinks there is no such thing as an "endurance gene," instead, it's polygenic. That is, it's a combination of hundreds or even thousands of genes that produce athletes with a genetic advantage. He further postulates that this is not unique to Kenyans, but the prevalence of these genetic factors might occur more often in Kenyans and other East Africans. A few of these factors include longer legs, shorter torsos, smaller calf muscles, and greater calf tendon elasticity.

Culture also plays a part. No one outside of the running community in the US has even heard of Rupp, Centro, Webb, etc, but elite Kenyans are national heroes.

When I first raced against Kenyans, I was shocked at how skinny they were in person. These guys were short (my height), but they were easily 30% lighter than me. Their calf muscles were about the size of a tennis ball cut in half. The rest of the lower leg was just skin covering bones and tendons!

Cultural

Sprinting is a byproduct of other popular American sports like football and basketball

There are many youth track clubs that focus on sprinting

Distance running is hard beyond the hobby jogger level and requires by definition distances over which to run. So, when parents won't even let the kids leave the yard, how are they suppose to get in the miles.

I'll admit, the high school XC team recruited me from the soccer team bench. I was the fastest on the pitch, but didn't have the ball skills. Many distance runners lack skill with balls.

I am fascinated by high schoolers who are competitive road cyclists and triathletes. They are really cultural outliers.

BTW, there was a time when the college football star was also the college track star. Herschel Walker comes to mind. It's now more of a rarity than in the past.

CrispyChicken wrote:

Many distance runners lack skill with balls.

And that's why distance running will never be taken seriously.

Internetsherlock wrote:

what are some of the reasons for this massive difference?

Is it physiology , psychology ,culture or?

What do you guys think ....

Bad food and no rigorous training regimen. I know a guy in Edmonton who never made it further than the 10 mile mark.

I mean, name a country besides Kenya or Ethiopia that has had more success in the last 15 years in terms of producing global medalists than the US.

I think good at sprinting because of two reasons. One is we had a couple generations of 'breeding' the strongest west africans so that they can have strong slaves in the 1800's. Strength is pretty important in sprinting, and slaves were picked out because they were strong. Those genetics have continued. Part 2 is that football is huge in the United States, and weight lifting programs are a large part of that starting when kids are roughly 14 years old. This builds a strength foundation to sprint fast, not everyone goes on to the next level in football and a biproduct of all that training is really fast people that don't continue football. These people become very fast sprinters after high school as they start to fully focus on sprinting/jumping. This sort of ends at the 400/800 level and 1500 meters and up that training is not very useful anymore.

But the U.S. is decently competitive at the distance events, but a lot of the medal contenders grew up in East Africa and came to the U.S. for the NCAA and remained, later switching citizenship. But even people who have lived here the entire time are sometimes quick, just not massive depth. We do have a handful of sub 13 5000 meter runners, and a couple sub 27 10000 runners. Those are not common times for europeans or asians or south americans.

CrispyChicken wrote:

Cultural

Sprinting is a byproduct of other popular American sports like football and basketball

There are many youth track clubs that focus on sprinting

Distance running is hard beyond the hobby jogger level and requires by definition distances over which to run. So, when parents won't even let the kids leave the yard, how are they suppose to get in the miles.

I'll admit, the high school XC team recruited me from the soccer team bench. I was the fastest on the pitch, but didn't have the ball skills. Many distance runners lack skill with balls.

I am fascinated by high schoolers who are competitive road cyclists and triathletes. They are really cultural outliers.

Parents don't let their children leave the yard? How do they go to school? Could you provide a link to the "Do you let your child leave the yard?" poll?

My daughter ran XC in middle school a few years ago and in the 4-way meets I went to, each school had at least 20 kids on their boys and girls teams.

People seem to consider Soccer the big sport in HS, but in the Sacramento area, it is far behind football and basketball in popularity. A great distance runner is going to get much more attention than a star Soccer player.

Michael Phelps didn't gave good ball skills.

Well, in Montgomery County, MD, parents can be charged with child neglect if they let their children walk around the neighborhood.

Lloydminsterunner wrote:

Internetsherlock wrote:

what are some of the reasons for this massive difference?

Is it physiology , psychology ,culture or?

What do you guys think ....

Bad food and no rigorous training regimen. I know a guy in Edmonton who never made it further than the 10 mile mark.

I don't think food is the biggest reason. Have you seen what the Kenyans are eating? Oak porridge and tea with sugar. Not much variety. Have you seen what the Ingebrigtsens are eating? (normal food; bread, jam, milk, pizzas, burgers). Food doesn't make that big of a difference - as long as your caloric needs are met, where athletes tend to eat more than people who don't train - it is easy to get in what you need in a day in terms of nutrients.

6% of slaves were brought to what is now the U.S. ending in 1808. 40% went to Brazil ending in 1888, why doesn’t Brazil dominate sprints?

CrispyChicken wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Parents don't let their children leave the yard? How do they go to school? Could you provide a link to the "Do you let your child leave the yard?" poll?

My daughter ran XC in middle school a few years ago and in the 4-way meets I went to, each school had at least 20 kids on their boys and girls teams.

People seem to consider Soccer the big sport in HS, but in the Sacramento area, it is far behind football and basketball in popularity. A great distance runner is going to get much more attention than a star Soccer player.

Michael Phelps didn't gave good ball skills.

Well, in Montgomery County, MD, parents can be charged with child neglect if they let their children walk around the neighborhood.

Most of the U S. population does not live in Montgomery County. And the pandemic affects all sports.