They seem to dominate all the more speed oriented events, events which could be better assisted with steroids. Why aren’t they so good at the longer events?
Flame away 
I’d say because most youth sports programs in the US revolve around baseball, basketball and football. Soccer and hockey are growing and they take up a lot of young athletes. Most of our best young athletes go into those sports. Which endurance sports are you referring to??? Guys like LA, Mark Allen, Dave Scott, LeMond, etc. have represented the US pretty well in ‘endurance’ sports. No one can run with Africans they’re just too small boned to compete with in flat out distance running. We don’t dominate in cross country skiiing…well because no one cross country skis!
people who compete in baseball, football or basketball are hardly close to people who might be good at endurance sports in terms of genetics.
personally i think the USA should be greatful for slavery for having the athletes it does.
again flame away :P.
Actually, the amount of athletes who make to the pro level is minscule. I’m talking about all the kids who compete, but have no chance of making it to even a college level. I think starting endurance sports at a young age is key to being succesful long term. I didn’t start this stuff until I was in my mid 20’s, I missed out on years and years of aerobic development…does that make more sense??
You’ll find little argument from me on the effect slavery has on African American athletes, there’s no doubt they’ve developed superior fast twitch muscle fibers.
On the same bent, most of the team sports in NZ are dominated by Polynesian athletes. We will soon see here what the Americans have witnessed for some time - black or brown people playing to packed stadiums, full of the white people who can afford the tickets.
You should see all the rugby academies in NZ, full of polynesian players. There size, speed and power can’t be matched. Oh, but the managers, coaches, trainers, accountants, and lawyers for the Rugby Union…well, they’re all white guys, of course.
nah we won’t…
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people who compete in baseball, football or basketball are hardly close to people who might be good at endurance sports in terms of genetics.
personally i think the USA should be greatful for slavery for having the athletes it does.
Yeah I hear Prefontaine worked really long hours in the cotton fields.
What a stupid comment.
again flame away :P.
i think you’ll find nz had a stronger middle distance running team in the years of prefontaine. 70s right?
They seem to dominate all the more speed oriented events, events which could be better assisted with steroids. Why aren’t they so good at the longer events?
Flame away
Lance is not from US? In Athen the 2. place in marathon was a guy from US right?
Easy. There’s no money in endurance sports.
“personally i think the USA should be greatful for slavery for having the athletes it does.”
grateful for slavery?
do you even know anything about slavery? how wretched, and horrible beyond words it was? how people are still dealing with the scars of it?
and then you have the nerve to put this “:P” in your post. this is perhaps the most offensive and ignorant thing I’ve read on slowtwitch. absolutely vile. and you are sick in the mind to think this way. i hope everyone who reads your words feels as outraged as I do…it is simply sick and disgusting.
Simple, we as Americans are an impatient bunch. We look for instant gratification.
Actually this was quite interesting, I was racing at the world championship qualifiers in Caledon ontario, and during this day there was also the junior national championships an ITU race, the junior nationals was a sprint, and the guy who won was an american. This course was so freaking technical by the way. Uphill and turns, and a cross country run. Anyways, the american brought the sprint in 59:something and the next kid to bring it in on this technical ass course brought it in like 1:01:something. I was quite impressed at both actually but the american had a 15:03 5k run… uphill, crosscountry insaneness.
"black or brown people playing to packed stadiums, full of the white people who can afford the tickets. "
you mean like the NBA?
actually, this reminds me of a college incident - my (white) roomate was arguing with my (black) friend, the white guy, who until he came to college, had never seen a black person, insisted that he was taught in high school that blacks were genetically different than whites. He wasn’t saying it in a racist way, he honestly thought he was correct and was trying to convince the black guy, who was just screamng “you ignorant cracker!” at him. On one level really funny to watch, on a deeper level, really sad.
you missed a keyword …“packed” Not as many people care about the NBA since traveling was actually three steps and there were no playground rules. Yawn
Don’t know that “developed” is the proper word. My opinion is that the people of west african descent tend to have better speed. At the very top of the sport you need to have it all, work ethic, top traininig, and the natural gifts. We see people of west african descent at the top of sprinting, they might live in the UK, US, Canada or actually west africa, but their descent goes back to west africa.
By the same token east africans seem to predominate middle and distance running. They live in the US, Bahrainm or someplace else maybe but they trace their lineage to Kenya, ethiopia, eritrea etc.
As for why the US doesn’t dominate endurance sport, we don’t do them very much. On saturdays kids are playing basketball in the park, not riding theirbikes into the countryside.
Huh? first of all, the US has dominated endurance cycling where it counts in the last 7 years … and what about Ironman - how many World champs out of the last 20 years have been won by men or women from the US - I would guesstimate more than half (just Marc Allen, Dave Scott and Paula N-F account for over half on their own.)
PNF is from Sth Africa my friend!!!
WTF? That is the most disturbing thing that I have ever heard. I’m suprised that given your level of ignorance you can type and use the written word.
Yes there are many great athletes of color. There are also many great athletes not of color.
To make a blanket statement like Blacks have better fast twich fibers is like saying that Asians have better brains than Blacks. or does your white meat dark meat scientific stat only hold true for running?
Ass.
Most of it has to do with coaching and numbers of athletes trying for certain events. The US has been pretty successful in swimming, cycling canoeing/kayaking, skating. Some limited success in running, but not much. Look at the steeple chase. In kenya its a national obsession, in the US its where guys that can’t quite cut it in the mile/5k go. What in B. kennedy had decided to concentrate on steeple? Possible medalist, but we will never know. Even when he went sub 13 for 5k and trained with kenyans he commented on how much more training they did. If he grew up in that environment maybe he could have taken 10 seconds off his PR.
Styrrell