Why don't we see Kick Ass African American distance runners?

Steve Holman, Lassiter, Krummenacker, and Johny Gray are all African American. In fact the best middle US distance runners in the last 10 years have been of African American. Oh yeah, there is also 3:53 miler Terrance Herrington(?).

Have you guy forgotten about Krummenacker!

THe really fast white poeple are from Eastern Europe? I think Seb Coe, Sir Roger Bannister, Eamon Coughlin and a shit load of others would have something to say about that.

Krumm, Holman, Jacobs, are of "mixed" race

A high school footbal coach has guys run 40yd dashes to find the fastest athlete, white black or what ever. There is no socialization in that. Blacks of west African decent have the highest percentage of fast twitch therefore are faster sprinters. Im sure a coach would want to put the fastest player at speed positions regardless or race at any level.

The succcessful sprinters have almost all been of West African decent. USA, UK, Canada, Carribean, Brazil. Why are the Nigerians always considered to have the fastes soccer team in the world. Who are the fastest baseballers-Rickey Henderson, Willy Wilson etc. Where are all the superfast white basketball players who are fast as Allen Iverson, Francis, Parker, Kidd, Bryant- none never have been. What about all those midwest states, how come they dont produce superfast white athletes. Coaches there do not have the choice of putting in black kids at speed positions.

Is it just coincidence that the best distance runners we have here are of East African decent KK, Meb, etc..

What about France they have a distance running tradition there, but most of there best distance runners are from North Africa and there sprinters are west african and that pattern is true for many countries.

However, there will always be exeptions

rute wrote:

The succcessful sprinters have almost all been of West African decent. USA, UK, Canada, Carribean, Brazil. been. What about all those midwest states, how come they dont produce superfast white athletes.

Is it just coincidence that the best distance runners we have here are of East African decent KK, Meb, etc..

However, there will always be exeptions

Thanks for all the foundationless science guys!

MOOPS!

There was a black kid from NJ Murad Cambell who used to hand Slattery his lunch every time they raced and he was a year younger than Slatts. Word is he went to a JuCO and fell into obscurity. Total waste of talent. More talented than Slattery and look where he is.

Thanks for your contribution, and does any one have have enough time or space on this board to discuss the physiology of the subject completely. So, we wind up summarizing.

16x wrote:

Thanks for all the foundationless science guys!

There is science behind it. I've seen the papers regarding muscle fiber comp. of West vs. East Africans. I'm not in the location right now where I can get the papers to cite them. There has got to be an ex. physiologist reading this. Help me out. Post some sources please.

yes, I read it once too - many other scientist have "disputed it".....

I am working on a "scientific" study to explain why my two siblings were never successful in running and I was. I'm sure they must have inherited my mom's fibers instead of my dad's or something.......HA!

On what basis was it disputed? What was disputed, the physiology or statistical interpretation? If you believe the difference is due to sociology explain.

It's simple really, you run the distance you are best at. Shoot, if I could run a 10 second 100 meters there is no way in hell I would be doing 20+ mile long runs ave. 100-110 a week. Simply too much work. I\'d play football, run on a relay (much more fun then the individual events) and flirt with the chicas during the long ass 2 mile. Have you ever noticed how the 2 mile drags in high school events yet the excitement comes back for the 4 x 400? No wonder no one wants to run distance.

to the max wrote:

Maybe I wasn\'t clear enough on my point.

At the high school level it\'s rare that you will see an african american distance runner, yet you\'ll see a ton of african american sprinters.

It all comes down to socialization.

Yeah I Remember that Murad kid from nj he's at essex county college now.

What races are Holman, Regina, and Krummennacker mixed with other than black.

because they're busy selling drugs on street corners and getting shot.

I also believe there's some sociological reasoning behind this issue.

I had a teammate with East African heritage, and she was the most naturally talented mid-distance runner I've ever seen!!! She would come out for track, and in one week of training she'd bust a 56 sec. 400m! She had long, skinny legs, and made running look easy. Unfortunately, she was not very bright and came from a poor family background. She chose to go play basketball at a junior college (when she was obviously a more gifted runner), got pregnant, dropped out of school, and I don't know what happened to her.

Not to stereotype any racial class, but I think what happened to my teammate may be a common thing. A significant proportion of people with African heritage come from poverty-stricken, one parent families. They may be raised (and pushed by coaches) to believe they are sprinters (when they are not), and think there's more opportunities for them in sports such as football and basketball due to full rides.

This is one idea, and other's may disagree, but it seems to hold true.

16X

I have blue eyes and my sister had brown eyes. I guess eye color isn't inherited.

There is no other good argument for why West African runners from a huge variety of national and cultural backgrounds dominate sprinting. The "culture" argument is so weak as to be laughable. How many of the top 200 100m times of all time have been run by folks of non-West African heritage?

By your logic, height isn't inherited since some people in a family may be tall and others short (and vary between individuals within groups). I am frankly stunned that there are still people who believe there are no group phenotypical trends within ethnicities when the evidence is right in front of your eyes and has no convincing counter explanation.

I agree that most kids aren't interested in being distance runners but I think that has less to do with biology and more to do with sociology. Most people don't know what ratio of fast twitch to slow twitch muscle fibers they have. You don't see many african american kids trying out for distance running because the belief is that african american kids aren't natual distance runners. Just look at all the posts on this board.

Anyways, the whole point I'm making is that I don't buy into east african being genically suprior distance runners. I've had a couple African born teammates(ethiopia and kenya) on my high school and college teams and they sucked.

The Finns used to be dominant distance runners. Where have they all gone? What happened to the Brits?

PS...sorry about leaving out Krum, Grey, Everett, Lassiter. Holman and Roidgina were the first african americans that came to mind.