no, if you read up on the history, the sherpas did all the hard work back then too. fixing ropes, hauling gear, stashing gear etc. and hillary didnt do it alone, nope he had to have his mt slave help him to the top.
and to the guy who said the other high altitude places are too mountainous, yet kenya and ethiopia is part of a plateau.....umm ever heard of the tibetan plateau? and there are large areas in bolivia, paraguay, chili and argentina that are flat and high.
nepal, bhutan, and places in south america are poor as well.....but lets see did the UK own them? are they part of the common wealth? no. thats the first part, also they speak ENGLISH. britain installed the running culture in kenya, they had some success because of being from altitude. then the dirty cycling coaches took their doping knowledge down there and boooooom.
you take top coaches or coaches that are decent, who have drug connections and take them to bolivia, nepal etc....and could speak the language...i bet you could start getting some top runners. especially with the sherpas since they do have a GENETIC advantage that would crush people in the marathon. but dont listen to me, listen to the people who say EPO doesnt work and kenyans just work harder.
if you can believe that but not think that a 115lb sherpa can lug 150lbs of sh*t up from 14,000 to base camp apprx 17,500....and sometimes BAREFOOT and thats not working hard...ok
how many kenyans could do that? most people who climb everest need supplemental oxygen, and its bragging rights to do it without. and who owns all the records on everest? sherpas! longest time spent at the top, a sherpa....oh one more thing for all you EPO deniers.
a few years back some prominent euros where using EPO, in order to not have to use bottled oxygen, and it was called into question if it was cheating or not.....now why would a mountain climber use EPO if it didnt work? they must have been mindweak