Jamaican sprinters in the Olympics

[DAWG61]

have been dominant for decades now. How? That country has less than 3 million people. How do they keep dominating the most basic of all sport on a planet with 7 billion people? Sprint as fast as you 17ing can for a short distance.

 

[wsjmsu75]

have been dominant for decades now. How? That country has less than 3 million people. How do they keep dominating the most basic of all sport on a planet with 7 billion people? Sprint as fast as you 17ing can for a short distance.

Ganjah.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

It can't just be cultural. The vast majority of Jamaicans are descended from a fairly small group of African slaves both intentionally and naturally selected for the environment they were put into. That combo of genes (potentially including some randomness) is great for sprinting.

 

[The Fatboy]

Culture has a lot to do with it though. They experienced early success in the sport which garnered tons of national attention and pride. Couple that with the idea that once a record is broken its only a matter time before it is broken again and it's the perfect recipe for dominating a sport.

 

[DAWG61]

Idk but their dominance is only the last two decades and it's their women that have been dominating the most winning 10 of the last 12 medals given out in the 100m. That's just an absurd stat. Plus Nigeria sucks at sprints and they have over 200 mill population.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

Idk but their dominance is only the last two decades and it's their women that have been dominating the most winning 10 of the last 12 medals given out in the 100m. That's just an absurd stat. Plus Nigeria sucks at sprints and they have over 200 mill population.

Nigeria's not awful - 11 of the 155 runners who've run a 10-second 100 are from there:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10-second_barrier#Electronically_timed_marks

It's not that Western Africans as a whole have good sprinting genes, it's just that that gene exists over there and for whatever reason got concentrated in the Jamaican population.

You also see countries with similar demographic makeup to Jamaica on the list despite tiny populations, such as Antigua & Barbuda (100k), Barbados (280k), and St. Kitts & Nevis (50k).

 

[DAWG61]

My bad Nigeria let me put some respect on it. You don't have to be faster than the lion you just have to be faster than your buddy running next to you.

 

[aTotal360]

I think it could simply be a combination of genetics and just enough financial investment to make it relevant. I bet Jamaica put more money into their sprinters than Uganda.

 

[Lettucexxxx]

It can't just be cultural. The vast majority of Jamaicans are descended from a fairly small group of African slaves both intentionally and naturally selected for the environment they were put into. That combo of genes (potentially including some randomness) is great for sprinting.

You are correct. Years of breeding by the British and hard work on those big mountain islands….with existing African genes……= Bigger Faster Stronger

This is not meant to be ugly….but….Arkansas has mountains. They are also really good at track….

Its a correlation of genes plus sub cultural breeding and geography.

I bet Norwegians are good at rowing.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wa...e-trade-reparations-from-great-britain/?amp=1

 

[prdubya]

have been dominant for decades now. How? That country has less than 3 million people. How do they keep dominating the most basic of all sport on a planet with 7 billion people? Sprint as fast as you 17ing can for a short distance.

Pretty sure they all saw the movie “Cool Runnings” and thought it would be really cold to bobsled so they decided to sprint instead***

 

[WilCoDawg]

It’s a mixture of genes and culture. “Culture” in the fact that sprinting is a pretty simple sport. They don’t have much and that’s something they can easily do. Just go run. Keep running. See who’s fastest. Keep doing that. It’s like Ethiopians having to run long distances to school. That running gives their bodies an advantage when they get older and want to run marathons.

 

[fang]

This^. I actually started to respond but didn’t. it’s like trying to tell a dog not to act like a dog.

 

[muhstate]

Considering the amount of Jamaican track and field athletes who have tested positive and their relationship with former Balco chemist Angel Heredia, it's not just culture making them good at those events.

 

[Junction John]

Jimmy the Greek says hi**

 

[Mobile Bay]

Keep in mind I was taught this at the Cobb on campus at Mississippi State University before some people get pissy when I say this.

There are groups of Africans who tent to be very tall and very thin. They have a superior ability to resist heat because of their black skin. They also have a superior ability because of their tall lean bodies to shed heat when compared to average humans. Less bulk and more surface area.

This contributes to more efficient functioning in high energy activities in warm environments like running outdoors in the summer.

 

[Go Budaw]

It can't just be cultural. The vast majority of Jamaicans are descended from a fairly small group of African slaves both intentionally and naturally selected for the environment they were put into. That combo of genes (potentially including some randomness) is great for sprinting.

It is absolutely the culture. They do everything fast. Ever listen to Shaggy?

 

[muhstate]

Keep in mind I was taught this at the Cobb on campus at Mississippi State University before some people get pissy when I say this.

There are groups of Africans who tent to be very tall and very thin. They have a superior ability to resist heat because of their black skin. They also have a superior ability because of their tall lean bodies to shed heat when compared to average humans. Less bulk and more surface area.

This contributes to more efficient functioning in high energy activities in warm environments like running outdoors in the summer.

In terms of detecting testosterone usage in a PED testing, different ethnicities are measured using different ratio of T/E (testosterone to epitestosterone). Testosterone plays a role in athletics since it affects muscle growth, hand/eye coordination, etc. It's a sensitive topic to research too heavily because of how the data is later interpreted but different ethnicities and more specifically regions do have different physiological advantages/disadvantages.

At an Olympic level though, that difference between various ethnicities is much smaller since you're dealing with genetically gift individuals for most events. Whether people want to admit it or not, track and field is probably the dirtiest sport in the Olympics in terms of PEDs. I'm more inclined to believe the winner of a majority of events are the ones using more advanced methods of doping/masking agents. Most of the positive drug tests now happen years after the Olympics have completed when new technology is used to re-run old samples.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

It can't just be cultural. The vast majority of Jamaicans are descended from a fairly small group of African slaves both intentionally and naturally selected for the environment they were put into. That combo of genes (potentially including some randomness) is great for sprinting.

I don't think the slaves were "naturally selected" for the environment they were put into. Pretty much were forced by other human beings into slavery.

I think a lot of it is that once you develop a tradition of excellence you attract people to the sport. Jamaican kids probably aspire to be like Usain Bolt so they want to do track.

It's also a relatively inexpensive sport to get into. A track can be built cheaply, used for almost free, and does not require expensive equipment.

 

[johnson86-1]

I don't think the slaves were "naturally selected" for the environment they were put into. Pretty much were forced by other human beings into slavery.

I think a lot of it is that once you develop a tradition of excellence you attract people to the sport. Jamaican kids probably aspire to be like Usain Bolt so they want to do track.

It's also a relatively inexpensive sport to get into. A track can be built cheaply, used for almost free, and does not require expensive equipment.

The "natural" selection reference is to the Middle Passage. Not exactly selecting for sprinting, but killing off the 10-20% of the "weakest" on the crossing could result in a population that tended to be more resilient and possibly some of that resilience could be from just being fitter (and maybe more athletic) in general.

The intentional selection would have been by slaveowners. Not sure if that happened or to what extent. I would guess not but that the hard life of slaves continued to put some pressure on and select for resilience.

ETA: There was a book that discussed how/why Jamaica was able to find everybody with talent and how it gets maximized (maybe Outliers?). But the gist of it was sprinting is their premiere sport, so everybody does some sprinting, the ones that are good then get encouraged and supported in continuing to compete. And unlike other countries, they aren't likely to get tempted away from track/sprinting by football, soccer, etc. So their argument was good genes were the base ingredient, but what separated them from other countries that would have similar athletes, if maybe not in the same concentration, was the emphasis they put on the sport.

 

[shotgunDawg]

Genetics & other nature/nurture type circumstances.

Read "The Sports Gene" by David Esptein for better explanations. All the best marathon runner comes from a decedents of a certain tribe in Kenya along with many other nature & nurture phenomenons.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+spor...sports+gen,aps,205&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_14

 

[BiscuitEater]

And, I thought they were ONLY good at bobsledding!****

 

[GloryDawg]

I suspect if many of our Professional Athletes trained year round all thier lives for track sports they would dominate.

 

[GhostOfJackie]

It can't just be cultural. The vast majority of Jamaicans are descended from a fairly small group of African slaves both intentionally and naturally selected for the environment they were put into. That combo of genes (potentially including some randomness) is great for sprinting.

There are plenty of countries, especially in the Caribbean, that could apply for and it doesn't. It has everything to do with the quality of training and the popularity of the sport within the culture/country. The obviously have great coaches who train great sprinters from an early age.

It's sort of like the difference in MS and AL in baseball. We both have great athletes and a talent pool to choose from, but Mississippi has better college programs/coaching/baseball culture, and the natural outcome of that is fielding better teams.

 

[DAWG61]

Imagine training your whole life for ten seconds in the Olympics. 100m is wild