This type of situation is usually cultural. They probably just need a Chinese version of Pre to kick off a major running boom. A charismatic freak athlete will eventually come along and change everything.
Under China's Hukou system there are hundreds of millions of poor rural citizens that have less rights and fewer opportunities than those living in cities. China is also horribly corrupt as you can see with their investments into trying to become good at soccer, the whole project was a complete embarrassment and they are regularly destroyed by much smaller Asian countries. These combined give China a very pathetic sporting culture that just relies on trying to dominate solo sports that very few other countries take seriously like diving, shooting air rifles, etc.
They also had the swimming doping scandal recently.
China is terrible at sports. 1.4 billion people and they are infatuated with Basketball yet they have produced literally one basketball player of note in their entire history (Yao Ming).
China is terrible at sports. 1.4 billion people and they are infatuated with Basketball yet they have produced literally one basketball player of note in their entire history (Yao Ming).
China is terrible at sports. 1.4 billion people and they are infatuated with Basketball yet they have produced literally one basketball player of note in their entire history (Yao Ming).
If you think that's bad, India has just as many people. Their best sport is cricket, and they're often beaten by Australia, a country that has just 27 million people (2% of India's population).
short limbs, long / thick torsos, maybe other genetic traits like low calf insertions.
chinese aren't bad athletes, they're just not natural runners (unlike India, which has more people but like 2 gold medals EVER)
chinese dominate weightlifting, diving, precision sports like archery, table tennis and are pretty good at swimming, gymnastics and combat / grappling sports.
the chinese probably have the "best" talent selection and training system of any country ever, so it's not for lack of organization. if China could produce incredible runners, it would.
If the US had that popluation, we'd have like 500 sub 4s a year.
I don't know how many Chinese runners have ever even raced a mile. If you're looking to make a comparison with the US you'd need to find out how many Chinese runners have run a 1500 in a time equivalent to a sub 4:00 mile.
I don't know how many Chinese runners have ever even raced a mile. If you're looking to make a comparison with the US you'd need to find out how many Chinese runners have run a 1500 in a time equivalent to a sub 4:00 mile.
21 Chinese men have run 3:42.84 or faster. Not sure exactly what the equivalent of a 4:00 mile is. I'm pretty sure it is close to 3:42.
I don't know how many Chinese runners have ever even raced a mile. If you're looking to make a comparison with the US you'd need to find out how many Chinese runners have run a 1500 in a time equivalent to a sub 4:00 mile.
21 Chinese men have run 3:42.84 or faster. Not sure exactly what the equivalent of a 4:00 mile is. I'm pretty sure it is close to 3:42.
That's about the equivalent. I'd have had no idea how to find that. Thanks.