There's an old adage in boxing which says when a black man fights a white man always bet on the black man. Yet look around boxing now and see how many champions are white, especially in the heavyweight division which for decades was dominated by black athletes. It's swings and roundabouts.
So why no African athletes winning the sprinting? Why only people of West African origin who live in ex-colonnial countries? No African has been heavyweight champion of the world that I can remember - only American, British and British-Canadian ones I can remember. The Chinese quite often win the ping pong and the badminton at the olympics - it's unfair to suggest that a Sri Lankan would be more likely to win either of these things simply because they come from the same continent.
Always bet on the hungry man. Hence the current dominance of the Heavyweight division by citizens of the former Soviet Union. And hence the number of Mexicans dominating the lighter weights. Of course, access to the best trainers is also required, which explains the lack of African world champions.
[video=youtube;DLKvYB7CeAY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLKvYB7CeAY[/video] "You can see evidence of this today - the NFL, for instance."
Facilities? The Afro-Caribbeans and Afro- Americans have the same physiology but much better training, equipment, opportunities etc.
Facilities play their part but so does centuries of social engineering. The Kenyans from the valley in the BBC piece don't have brilliant facilities. Probably worth mentioning is people from mixed race backgrounds - having as varied a genetic background as possible is seen as genetically advantageous (according to Stephen Jay Gould, anyway) - people of mixed race are probably over-represented in sport and this could have a genetic reason. Just saying "black people are faster and stronger" isn't the whole picture.
At the risk of being labelled 'anti-western' Hitler and his idea of the 'superior race' was not a new concept The British and americans beat him to it years before. The idea of a 'perfect slave' had them experimenting with all sorts. Including incest slaves were 'bred' to be stronger, faster etc Bit like Steve Austin the 6 million dollar man, but without the technology or the finance
He worked his way up from being a slave, to running the slaves, to owning the slaves which he then sold to buy all his houses.
