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I especially like this paragraph from the story: "Kenyans and Ethiopians have dominated the marathon since 1999; in fact, of the 100 fastest marathoners in hist

I especially like this paragraph from the story: "Kenyans and Ethiopians have dominated the marathon since 1999; in fact, of the 100 fastest marathoners in history, 59 are from Kenya and 31 are from neighboring Ethiopia. Is it genes or environment—nature or nurture—that is responsible for this overwhelming domination? The answer doesn’t actually matter when it comes to who will run the first sub-two marathon. The success of East African runners reveals key traits that the eventual record-setter will possess, wherever he happens to be born." Yes, no matter where the runner who first runs a sub-two-hour marathon is born, from whatever group of ancestors, and where the runner trains, the runner will have to have certain characteristics to run that fast for that long. The article then proceeds to detail those characteristics. I used to turn off a lot of Javascript on webpages, but I'm actually managing to read this article reasonably well despite the appalling usability it has with Javascript turned on. The article is definitely worth a read, despite the annoying default screen presentation.

revelation 12y ago
A lot of the success of Kenyans and Ethiopians is probably down to the economics of running (which is to say, it is an easily accessible sport to even the poor) and the feedback loop of other successful Kenyans. Kimetto, the recently crowned world marathon record holder, was a subsistence farmer just years ago (http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/from-poverty-to-podium http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/from-poverty-to-po...). There are simply no western school kids growing up thinking distance running is a viable career path for them (and given what we make the kids do for exercise in school, we couldn't spot a talent anyway). Contrast this to other extreme endurance sports such as pro cycling, where there are basically no Kenyans, Ethiopians or Africans at all to be found. Theres a high cost to entry and it requires infrastructure to train.
- infinitone 12y ago
  You make it sound like the Africans are the only ones racing. There are plenty of Euro/Asian/American runners competing for it and probably had much better infrastructure and training counsel than their African counterparts. Yet still, the Africans dominate. By definition then, its definitely more than just 'economics' and certainly more to do genes/physique/etc.
  - nl 12y ago
    Read "Running with the Kenyans"[1]. Euro/Asian/American runners might have nice tracks to train on, but they don't have things like training groups that include multiple Boston, NY and Berlin winners. That book is pretty eye opening read. The running culture is like nothing else - guys who come 3rd in the world 10,000m championship are hardly worth mentioning, high school races have better fields than US or European championships etc etc. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Running-Kenyans-Discovering-Secrets-Fastest/dp/0345528808# http://www.amazon.com/Running-Kenyans-Discovering-Secrets-Fa...
    - a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
      I read into your post the idea that it's training culture and not genetics that gets so many east africans into distance running success. Correct me if I'm wrong. Seems unlikely to me. 100m and 200m is thoroughly dominated by New World West Africans. Mid distance 400m to 1600m is pretty well split up between Africans, Whites, and East Asians. Whites actually seem to do well at 800m. I don't really know, but it seems there's a ton of racial genetics at play in sport. You see in olympic/power lifting it's dominated by nordics/baltics and persians. Considering global popularity it defies ideas about training culture.
      - clarkm 12y ago
        No idea why you're being downvoted. Having high-altitude adaptations certainly helps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_adaptation_in_humans#Genetic_basis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_adaptation_in_hu...
      - nl 12y ago
        I'd never rule out the (huge) role genetics play. But the culture and environment have a role too. You don't see many Kenyans dominating in cross country skiing or in road cycling which are both endurance sports where similar physical attributes are useful. Sports culture has a huge role. OTOH, there have been projects to see how Kenyans do in those sports. The small Nike-supported cross country skiing project wasn't very successful[1], but the cycling project is showing some promise[2]. Genetics has a huge role. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Boit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Boit [2] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2013/apr/29/cycling-films-kenya-rwanda http://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2013/apr/29...

revelation 12y ago

A lot of the success of Kenyans and Ethiopians is probably down to the economics of running (which is to say, it is an easily accessible sport to even the poor) and the feedback loop of other successful Kenyans. Kimetto, the recently crowned world marathon record holder, was a subsistence farmer just years ago (http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/from-poverty-to-podium http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/from-poverty-to-po...). There are simply no western school kids growing up thinking distance running is a viable career path for them (and given what we make the kids do for exercise in school, we couldn't spot a talent anyway). Contrast this to other extreme endurance sports such as pro cycling, where there are basically no Kenyans, Ethiopians or Africans at all to be found. Theres a high cost to entry and it requires infrastructure to train.

infinitone 12y ago
You make it sound like the Africans are the only ones racing. There are plenty of Euro/Asian/American runners competing for it and probably had much better infrastructure and training counsel than their African counterparts. Yet still, the Africans dominate. By definition then, its definitely more than just 'economics' and certainly more to do genes/physique/etc.
- nl 12y ago
  Read "Running with the Kenyans"[1]. Euro/Asian/American runners might have nice tracks to train on, but they don't have things like training groups that include multiple Boston, NY and Berlin winners. That book is pretty eye opening read. The running culture is like nothing else - guys who come 3rd in the world 10,000m championship are hardly worth mentioning, high school races have better fields than US or European championships etc etc. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Running-Kenyans-Discovering-Secrets-Fastest/dp/0345528808# http://www.amazon.com/Running-Kenyans-Discovering-Secrets-Fa...
  - a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
    I read into your post the idea that it's training culture and not genetics that gets so many east africans into distance running success. Correct me if I'm wrong. Seems unlikely to me. 100m and 200m is thoroughly dominated by New World West Africans. Mid distance 400m to 1600m is pretty well split up between Africans, Whites, and East Asians. Whites actually seem to do well at 800m. I don't really know, but it seems there's a ton of racial genetics at play in sport. You see in olympic/power lifting it's dominated by nordics/baltics and persians. Considering global popularity it defies ideas about training culture.
    - clarkm 12y ago
      No idea why you're being downvoted. Having high-altitude adaptations certainly helps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_adaptation_in_humans#Genetic_basis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_adaptation_in_hu...
    - nl 12y ago
      I'd never rule out the (huge) role genetics play. But the culture and environment have a role too. You don't see many Kenyans dominating in cross country skiing or in road cycling which are both endurance sports where similar physical attributes are useful. Sports culture has a huge role. OTOH, there have been projects to see how Kenyans do in those sports. The small Nike-supported cross country skiing project wasn't very successful[1], but the cycling project is showing some promise[2]. Genetics has a huge role. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Boit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Boit [2] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2013/apr/29/cycling-films-kenya-rwanda http://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2013/apr/29...