i think i'm going to have to call BS on at least some of this thread. look again at that first picture on page 1, but this time look at the faces: each of those men is in real pain.
this might be my academic/professional background poking through, but i recoil a bit from all this worshipping of 'african-ness'. are we saying 'africans just run', whereas everyone else runs with crappy form because they lack the blood quantum that keeps them relaxed or endows them with a flawless footstrike?
i'm not calling anyone out, and i think the original point of the post was a well-deserved bit of admiration for some incredible athletes. and i'm as keen as anyone to watch tapes of the pros (i just downloaded a whack of thorpe/hacket videos) or to read about the 'training secrets' of the best. but this constant fingering of 'african' ancestry (what do morrocans and kenyans really have in common, geographically? it's like referring to turks and koreans as 'asians') as the golden thread is misplaced.
yes, the kalenjin dominate, and are structurally well-suited to running at certain distances. but they also work incredibly hard, live very healthy lifestyles, grow up in a culture which praises running excellence and live in a context in which running provides a very real way out of an otherwise hard/unstable life. the sherpa example is well-served here, too.
would we say that africans will never excel at triathlon because they haven't got those 'north american' genes? or that team canada sucked in the pool at the olympics this year because we just aren't 'naturals' like those aussies? bell curve, anyone?
anyway, this may ruffle some feathers - or not - but i'm accustomed to not take these things at face value; regardless i'm a fan of this thread and keen to see where it goes.
-mike
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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/