Sam and Ben Ruthe: Genetics help.... A LOT. "When I was doing no training, I did feel like I was quite gifted at running"

He isn't saying anything that any other talented athlete hasn't experienced. It doesn't make him different.

Duh!

I hate the whole talent vs non talent. It is like how people complain all the top basketball prospects dad’s played pro basketball. Being 6’6” matters, you have a good chance of being tall with a tall parent.

Half of sports is having the right body for the sport!!! Most are eliminated before they start. How many distance runners are running because they didn’t have the right body type for a different sport!

do we need more Samoan representation in the marathon?

Anyone that’s ever competed in any sport knows that natural ability is everything behind success. Ruthe’s ingredients don’t give him an advantage over other elites.

Mentally knowing your family was a bunch of good runners probably helps too

a confidence thing, derived from the whole “maybe I was born to do this, let’s give it a try”

Anyone at that level is going to be relatively fast on their first attempt with zero training, especially compared to other non-runners.

Funny that "talent" is usually active as a kid, running around everywhere, not being lazy on the couch inside all day. These kids worked. Sure, they were a bit gifted, but they unlocked it themselves.

You think talent in running is equally gifted to everyone???

Seriously dude, your idiotic posts are a waste of time.

“ingredients”?? What are you on about?? Of course it is just not talent. “Nurture and environment” are huge differentiators. This is beyond common sense.

I didn't say that. To be talented means he is like other talented athletes. That doesn't mean everyone is gifted. You arent intelligent enough to understand that.

They posted a video of him running in some event as a toddler. He was active, just not what they classify as “training” until later.

And it wasn’t the school 50yrd dash like 50 years ago. It was a public distance event…maybe a 5k, or whatever. But he seemed to have been known by locals that he was the fast kid.

No sane person agues that there's not many 'ingredients' to running success, it's the proportions that keep the muppets talking; and thats because they are unknowable. Thats also what keeps the whole running sport going - none of us know exactly how good we could be (up to a certain age, anyway).

More interesting to me than actual talent was training response. Some runners annually would go from scrubs at the beginning of the season to sub-elite with 6 weeks of training, others (like me) easily beat them at first, but never seemed to get much better with similar training. Who is more 'talented'?

Anyone who can remember their school days can recall that there were kids who could run a lot faster than other kids - and no one was training. What he experienced was what other talented youngsters also experienced. They stood out. He isn't unique in that regard.

defn for speed and middle distance races a lot of that is genetics. However I feel longer distances is really putting in the work.

Samoans play football at high rates, but before the Western diet they were svelte and fit. Environment changes a people. Genetics didn't magically change in the US between 2000 (barely any good distance runners) and now (multiple medal prospects from 800 through 10000m).

10000m, although we are good at ultras too!

Talent is key. Think of Seb Coe, who was made for middle distance running. But diet, training and will count too. Salazar comes to mind; he enjoyed 2 - 3 years as the best marathoner in the world, he wasn't exactly the guy you'd pop into the mile relay at the end of a track meet...

People don’t like to admit how big a part genetics play. For those who have them they feel we’re trying to downplay their hard work. For those who don’t have them- we like to feel our hard work can get us there and life is fair- so this is an inconvenient reality