Quote:
|
How is it that with an increasingly egalitarian society a group of people defined by their skin color who make up only 12% of the world's population own 75% of the sprinting records?
|
Colin, I really don't want to sound like Jimmy the Greek here, but back in my high school days I read an interesting article in a running magazine. It said that black people are slightly different in their anatomy than whites. They have more fast twitch muscle fibers and they have a shorter achilles tendon, therefore giving them more *explosive* power and torque. Supposedly this is why they are faster, and why Michael Jordan can take off at the foul line for a dunk. I don't know if it's true, but this is what I read... I certainly don't want to offend anyone or sound stereotypical...
That certainly doesn't explain how the Kenyans completely dominate the marathon though. It actually contradicts it. But those marathoners are like machines, they just don't slow down at all...
On a side note of useless information:
Back in the early 80's there was a marathoner by the name of Alberto Salazar. This guy was amazing in his ability to run almost top speed for miles. His best 400 meter time was something like 56 seconds, and I could easily beat that in high school along with a lot of of other people. That son of a gun set the world record for the marathon and won the New York Marathon three years in a row. He would toss in a 4:17 mile here and there and was like a machine running at red line the whole race. He almost died a couple of times, collapsing after the finish line with a body temperature of 87ish. He was amazing...