Sir Lance-alot wrote:
a sunny moo wrote: If every American trained hard, the top Americans would beat the top Kenyans simply because America has more people to choose from.WHAT !??! You have absolutely zero evidence to prove this! 300,00 decent runners doesn't = one Bekele or Tergat.
Important as American runners may feel the world of distance running is, distance runners aren't culture heroes here in the country at large, nor is there any intelligible economic incentive that would drive large numbers of suburban or country (or city) boys to focus every last bit of energy and yearning on becoming the best. This MAY actually be changing, and that MAY be one reason why, over the past several years, American distance running has thrown up runners who can compete with the best, if not quite vanquish the best.
If championship victories led to a payoff for American runners that was proportionate, as a multiple of per capita income, to the payoff for Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes, then I suspect we would begin to see some surprising changes on the home front. (Sadly, PEDs would become an impossible temptation.) But you get the point, I hope. "Genetic advantage" isn't the only massively important variable here; nor is it self-evidently (to me, at least) the determinant variable. I'll concede that it is an important factor, but there are other important factors.