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This phenomenon has nothing to do with being black but everything to do with genetics. The defining characteristics of world class sprinters is not the fact th
by Lukeas14 15y ago
This phenomenon has nothing to do with being black but everything to do with genetics. The defining characteristics of world class sprinters is not the fact that they're black but is rather attributed to either genes passed down from their ancestors or their own genetic mutations. My theory is that if we traced the family trees of top sprinters we'd find that many are descendants of slaves who were bred to be bigger, faster and stronger.
- hackinthebochs 15y agoI think this is a stretch. I don't think there was enough selective pressure to really cause that much of a change in gene distribution in such a short period. Furthermore, unless the mutations for being "bigger, faster" were novel to the slave population, there is no reason to think that any breeding practices would have had any meaningful influence. What is more likely is that genes for excelling at sprinting probably came from the same area of Africa.
- Lukeas14 15y agoI certainly don't believe that any "bigger, faster" mutations are novel to the slave population as they can occur within any group of people. But through breeding these mutations are likely to be more prevalent in the target population. This explains why the 400m race can be dominated by blacks but Jeremy Wariner (white guy) can still be the fastest. If that were true you would see similar numbers of sprinters from West Africa. If your last point were true we would see world class sprinters coming out of one of the West African nations. I can't think of any.