MEB article Wall street journal

Thanks for the link and you are so right. He embodies the American dream more than most of us, and I look forward to reading his forthcoming auto-bio that is mentioned in the article.

Looking forward to his autobiography coming out 11/1

This is such a lame issue, I'm surprised the WSJ is still covering it. Meb is American and the few Internet trolls or ignorant sports guys who still bring this up are not worth paying attention to.

(From the article): he seeks to become the first American to repeat a title at the NYC marathon since Alberto Salazar

Salazar? Isn't he Cuban?

It's not about whether Meb is American or not. His citizenship is almost as irrefutable as Obama's. However:

What are the odds that he'd have a genetic profile advantageous to distance running if he had been born to two random Americans?

Fact: Worse than being born into a demographic that have been evolving at altitude ever since our species first emerged in the region.

Would he have been as successful if he hadn't grown up at altitude, say, like an average American, in America?

Fact: Growing up at altitude is an enormous advantage. While Hall has that advantage over most of the world, so does Meb. The difference? Eritreans are more likely to be born at altitude than Americans. It's a simple matter of topography.

Do these facts make Meb less relate able to the hundreds of millions of Americas who grew up close to sea level and have physiques (even when in shape) that lend better to the shot put than the chicago marathon?

Fact: Yes

East Africans are the Yankees of professional running. The rest are the Cubs.

Go Cubs.

I heard he was born in Kenya. He's obviously a sleeper agent for the global Homosexual-Islamic conspiracy.

If Meb would just work on his accent, stay out of that nasty tanning sunlight, and learn to be grateful to Jesus (I heard Ryan Hall gives lessons), America will accept him as one of their own.

East Africans are the Yankees of professional running.

EAs don't dope like A-hole and the y's.

overyourhead wrote:

Do these facts make Meb less relate able to the hundreds of millions of Americas who grew up close to sea level and have physiques (even when in shape) that lend better to the shot put than the chicago marathon?

Fact: Yes

That's why white America just can't get into basketball. All those black dudes playing. We just can't relate. They are freaky tall, too.

Trust me, that sport will never catch on until it starts getting some players more like "us".

I think when someone speaks pretty bad English, it makes you question how 'American' they are. This conversation has been beaten to death on this forum over the last decade ... Meb caught so much heat for his victory lap with the Eritrean flag in 2000. He's learned and grown since then (and Lagat has been brilliant in his marketing -- good learner).

Foreign athletes aren't the reason running isn't a mainstream sport, nor are they the reason basketball is a mainstream sport.

The average American kid plays a little basketball growing up. The average American kid does not do a little athletics at altitude growing up.

NBA fans often take a little time to warm up to outright foreigners and foreign-born athletes. Why? They're just not as relatable as the kids with whom we grew up playing street ball.

Its a tribal mentality humans just can't seem to shake

overyourhead is:

FACT: ignorant

FACT: a bigot

FACT: a moron

FACT: A person who seems to be able to spurt out tidbits of supposed information as fact.

Moron.

overyourhead is right on the money. "American" is a cultural stereotype. Your typical kid growing up on US soil does not have Meb's genetic profile.

vcxbvvb wrote:

overyourhead is right on the money. "American" is a cultural stereotype. Your typical kid growing up on US soil does not have Meb's genetic profile.

What, uh, "genetic profile" does "the typical kid growing up on US soil" have?