Posted on 05/15/2024 12:40:45 PM PDT by JSM_Liberty
In late 2009, the question everyone was asking was put to the man himself.
What made Usain Bolt – an era-defining champion of immense speed and consummate ease at just 23 – so fast?
Bolt cited his God-given talent, while crediting a diet that ranged from ultra-processed chicken nuggets to the Jamaican staple of yams. But he also pointed to the cruelties of man.
"I think over the years what makes Jamaica different is because of slavery really," he said of his sprinting roots. "The genes are really strong."
It is a hypothesis that existed before Bolt's comments and has persisted since; that the barbarity of the transatlantic slave trade, which forcibly took men, women and children from Africa and exported them into forced labour in the Caribbean, Brazil, the United States and elsewhere, still echoes in modern-day track and field.
The theory runs that the unnatural selection of black physical prowess centuries ago affects podium potential today.
Not since British sprinter Allan Wells triumphed at the boycott-hit Moscow 1980 Games has a white man made an Olympic or world 100m podium.
In fact, it was more than four decades after Wells' triumph that China's Su Bingtian became the next man without black parentage to even compete in an Olympic 100m final, in 2021.
During that time, black sprinters from North America and the Caribbean have claimed 24 out of 30 medals in the men’s 100m at the Olympics.
But was Bolt right? Does the link between modern glory and a dark past hold true? Or are appearances deceiving? In September 1995, Sir Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes and an eminent neurologist, stood up to speak at a conference in Newcastle. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Bannister would concede that he was unable to identify what those precise advantages were.
But, he insisted,, external it was correct to note the apparent correlation between race and sprint medals, and seek to explain the underlying factors he believed were behind it."
I thought Jimmy the Greek already answered this question.
It’s tenths of seconds.
The Marxists are dividing the nation over things like tenths of seconds.
The one thing that I do not understand is if Pres Trump can treat all citizens with respect and dignity until he is given reason to change course. Why can’t we do the same thing?
If genetics is a factor, it may go back to natural selection operating in African environments centuries or thousands of years ago, long before the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
you mean a bio male with male dna IS different than a bio female with female dna?....
of course we're different...
I think they did push two physical slaves together to make more physical babies but slavery has been gone for centuries, and anything that happens in the last three generations happened in the black community on purpose....
my family...we had nothing to do with slavery...we've never been rich and almost all white Americans never participated in slavery....look to your historically rich elitist...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JpVdc3QaqY
natural selection?....well, we must include the fact that the strongest male bred with how many females he could gather....the selection part was more of a forced relationship....
Top distance runners, on the other hand, are more likely to be East Africans who would have made terrible slaves. Some Kenyan or Ethiopian dude who is 6’3” tall and weighs 95 pounds isn’t good for much in an agrarian setting except perhaps as a live scarecrow.
The Ethiopians entrants weren’t slaves.
BINGO, you took the thoughts right outta my head.
Kenyans dominate marathons because they were slaves I guess. These people are retarded.
Then there’s all the asian basketball players.
evolution
Ashkenazim Jews from Eastern Europe are blessed with genetics which allows them to excel in Math and Science.
It's obvious, and anyone who doesn't recognize it is either blind or a liar.
The article is about the sprint events, not the long distance events.
it’s the bouyancy!
Natural selection can apply in circumstances other than slavery. In East Africa, herdsmen travel on foot for vast distances over relatively flat terrain. The ones whose ancestors did this well, over thousands of generations, are in a good position to also do well in a sport that requires a nearly identical skillset.
Weren’t slaves the people who WEREN’T strong enough to beat back or out run the other blacks who sold them to the slavers?
The fastest men had a better chance of living long enough to father children...the slower men had a better chance of being eaten by a lion.
Yeah. Greek,got fired for saying what Bolt said.
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