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I think genetics has a lot to do with the success of Kenyan long-distance athletes. There are forty-two ethnic communities in Kenya, yet pretty much every long-
by abenga 13y ago
I think genetics has a lot to do with the success of Kenyan long-distance athletes. There are forty-two ethnic communities in Kenya, yet pretty much every long-distance runner you have ever heard of is from the Kalenjin community. If it were a matter of the country loving the sport, there could be a wider spread among the communities in Kenya.
- moron4hire 13y agoDo you know anything about the comparable economic stability of these communities? Do you know anything about their own cultural differences? People in my hometown love baseball. The next town over they love football. My hometown has never produced a professional or semi-pro football player, and the next town over has never produced a professional or semi-pro baseball player. But they each have had one or two people at least show up on the rosters of a professional team in their favorite sports. That's a difference of 11 miles, with highly mobile people who do intermarry between towns. There can be significant enough differences in the culture of particular communities to allow for varying sports values. I would expect smaller towns to tend to emphasize one sport over all others, to the point that the townspeople in large part will live and breath that sport in a way that people in larger communities with more diverse sports options would not.
- konstantintin 13y agoyes, cultural differences and training are important for sporting success. this still can hardly explain the pattern pointed out above...