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Onhan tuota joskus tuumittukin...
Scientists Theorize Why Black Athletes Run Fastest
http://www.livescience.com/10716-scientists-theorize-black-athletes-run-fastest.html
toisenlaista näkökulmaa...
Why are the fastest black sprinters faster than the fastest white sprinters?
Interesting question. This had popped up in my mind when I was a kid and I decided to do some research. What I found was pure human evolution. We, human beings or in general any member of the animal kingdom automatically adapt to their surroundings. And if these conditions prevail over a long range of time, our bodies actually evolve. I’ll give you some examples..
- Blacks who trace their ancestry to West Africa, including African Americans, hold more than 95 percent of the top times in sprinting;
- Whites are virtually absent from the top ranks of sprinting; though whites have traditionally done well in the longer endurance races, particularly the marathon, their ranks have thinned in recent years;
- Athletes from one country, Kenya, make up more than one-third of top times in middle and long distance races; including top performances by other East Africans (most from Ethiopia), that domination swells to almost 50 percent.
- North Africans do well at middle distances;
- Mexicans (Native Americans), are strongest at the longest races, 10,000 meters and the marathon;
- East Asians are competitive only at the event requiring the most endurance, the marathon, and at ultra-marathons.
- One tiny district, the Nandi, with only 500,000 people, sweeps an unfathomable 20 percent of major international distance events, marking it as the greatest concentration of raw athletic talent in the history of sports.
For years it was axiomatic that muscles have two types of fibers - white, or fast-twitch, which were thought to be adapted for power movements, such as leaping or sprinting; and red, or slow-twitch, which were adapted for endurance. Now we know the model is more complicated. There are in fact two different types of fast-twitch fibers, one more metabolically efficient. Whites on average have a higher percentage of slow-twitch fibers than West African blacks who generally have more of both types of fast-twitch fibers.
The West Africans, by a ratio of approximately two to one, had more of the larger fast-twitch fibers. The researchers concluded that the force generating capacity of muscle fibers at high velocity, the speed and tempo of movements, and the capacity of an individual to adapt to exercise training are all genetically influenced.
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-the-fastest-black-sprinters-faster-than-the-fastest-white-sprinters
So, these western Africans have a genetic advantage in having larger fast-twitch muscles than others and in a sport like sprinting where every millisecond counts, the divide is huge. And most of the Caribbean population descend from the Africans who were brought from Western African nations like Ghana etc during the slave trade during colonial rule. Hence, the characteristics.
For a similar reason, eastern Africans have an edge over others at endurance events. People descending primarily from the Ethiopian highlands and adjoining areas dominate almost all long-distance runs worldwide. It is because of two reasons. One, they have the largest percentage of slow-twitch muscle fibers which are meant for endurance and they are very aerobically efficient. meaning they can better use the oxygen in the air to release more energy.
I quote Kathy Myburgh “ the oxidative enzyme capacity of the [black] athletes we looked at was one and a half times higher on average than the white runners,". There you see.
Moreover, as there ancestors have been living in the highlands over a vary long period of time, there bodies have adapted to the lower levels of atmospheric oxygen prevalent there. They have greater number of RBCs in their blood. When track events take place normal plain areas , they have a automatic advantage over others since they have more RBCs and hence can carry more oxygen to their muscles. Sports scientists have been trying to emulate this adaptation in athletes by deliberately training athletes at higher altitudes known as Altitude training.