Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Someone forget to mention economics. Track, especially running, is one of the least expensive sports to train for. If you live near an open field or a stadium, or enrolled in a public school, you just show up there and train. All you need is a decent pair of shoes. Basketball is another less-expensive. All you need is a ball and a net. Blacks have traditionally been economically-challenged. So they gravitate towards sports that are affordable. That's why they dominate track and basketball.
Swimming costs money. Gymnastics and tennis costs more money. Any sport requiring excessive amount of gear, proper facilities (like a pool, gymnasium, a proper court) will cost money. With a few exceptions, whites are usually more likely to afford these.
Baseball is also popular in Taiwan and South Korea. In fact it's well enough developed in South Korea that it's a regular destination for MLB scouts who pick up folks like Chan Ho Park and Shin Soo Choo and bring 'em back here.
Oh, no! It's spreading. Run for the hills! Run for the hills! Anyway, thanks for fine tuning my baseball knowledge.
Someone forget to mention economics. Track, especially running, is one of the least expensive sports to train for. If you live near an open field or a stadium, or enrolled in a public school, you just show up there and train. All you need is a decent pair of shoes. Basketball is another less-expensive. All you need is a ball and a net. Blacks have traditionally been economically-challenged. So they gravitate towards sports that are affordable. That's why they dominate track and basketball.
Swimming costs money. Gymnastics and tennis costs more money. Any sport requiring excessive amount of gear, proper facilities (like a pool, gymnasium, a proper court) will cost money. With a few exceptions, whites are usually more likely to afford these.
That's cuz you forgot to read my oh-so-brilliant post. But, I didn't elaborate like you.
I don't think you can pin it on any one thing--race, economics, etc. It's a combination of things. Granted, physical attributes help. But I saw taller-than-average gymnasts competing at the Olympic level. And Dara Torres and that vaulter from Germany taught us that age is only a number.
I agree with geography playing a factor as well. When I read the bios of swimmers from other countries, I'm amazed how many come to the US to train in TX, FL or CA. Then they go home and compete for their own country.
I don't think you can pin it on any one thing--race, economics, etc. It's a combination of things. Granted, physical attributes help. But I saw taller-than-average gymnasts competing at the Olympic level. And Dara Torres and that vaulter from Germany taught us that age is only a number.
I agree with geography playing a factor as well. When I read the bios of swimmers from other countries, I'm amazed how many come to the US to train in TX, FL or CA. Then they go home and compete for their own country.
Its not just swimmers many track runners train in the US especially the Jamaican runners some even share the same coaches as the US athletes.
Exactly and who in the world can forget Yao Ming???? The man is over 7 feet tall and is totally Chinese.
Yao Ming is proof that eugenics works. From Time Magazine:
The faint whispers of a genetic conspiracy coursed through the corridors of Shanghai No. 6 Hospital on the evening of Sept. 12, 1980. It was shortly after 7 p.m., and a patient in the maternity ward had just endured an excruciating labor to give birth to a baby boy. An abnormally large baby boy. The doctors and nurses on duty should have anticipated something out of the ordinary. The boy's parents, after all, were retired basketball stars whose marriage the year before had made them the tallest couple in China. The mother, Fang Fengdi, an austere beauty with a pinched smile, measured 1.88 m—more than half a foot taller than the average man in Shanghai. The father, Yao Zhiyuan, was a 2.08-m giant whose body pitched forward in the kind of deferential stoop that comes from a lifetime of ducking under door frames and leaning down to listen to people of more normal dimensions. So imposing was their size that ever since childhood, the two had been known simply as Da Yao and Da Fang—Big Yao and Big Fang.
The whole article:
TIMEasia Magazine: The Creation of Yao Ming (http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501051114/story.html - broken link)
I'm sure that Adolf Hitler would have been impressed with the idea that race matters in the Olympics. But I can't see why anyone else should be.
Training has a lot more to do with it. East Africans dominate track events because 1) they train in mountainous regions. And 2) because they can devote more time to training than, say, Americans. We've got the Rocky Mountains in this country, so there's no reason why American runners--whether they happen to be black or white--couldn't dominate any and all running events.
You aren't giving genetics (i.e. race) enough credit. I could train perfectly for years in the sprints and not be world class simply because I don't have the percentage of fast twitch muscle fibers that West Africans and their descendants have.
Do you they train properly? Of course they do.
Do they have a head start on most us? Yep.
Does that make their accomplishments any less important? Nope.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
