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UBahn1 t1_iradao9 wrote

Holy shit, keeping an average 21kmh pace for 42km seems superhuman. That's a sprint for some people

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Duke_De_Luke t1_iradvuz wrote

It's actually faster than most people can sprint. :-)

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[deleted] t1_iran461 wrote

It also doesn't mean that much. A lot of disciplines are reigned by certain genetics.

For a marathon it seems to be good to be from east Africa and be short. For sprinting: same region and tall.

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LengthinessNew961 t1_iraoegk wrote

The best sprinters are from west African descent not east Africa

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johnniewelker t1_irau5ul wrote

Ironically, most top sprinters are either North American or Caribbean black people. I rarely see someone from West Africa winning. You’d think way more folks from West Africa would be winning if it was mostly genetics

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LengthinessNew961 t1_iraudn1 wrote

You trace the lineage of those Caribbean and American sprinters and it all goes back to west Africa. The Americans and Caribbeans win because they have access to the best training facilities and a culture that puts an emphasis on sprinting.

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johnniewelker t1_irb0y0f wrote

Africans, like Caribbeans, spend a lot of their training in the US and in Europe. So at the very least, I’d expect them to perform similarly to Caribbean athletes.

That’s said, we are talking about a small number of athletes. The reasons why a few emerge above the pack can be totally unrelated to genetics while on average it plays a bigger role, if that makes any sense

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[deleted] t1_irb46rp wrote

Thanks for not calling me a racist.

Different skill, but musicians often group from certain areas. Could just be the local(city) leven culture that encourages certain skills

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VanderbiltStar t1_irdrvaq wrote

They were also all breed in the states to be peak physically. They literally took the two biggest, fastest, most well producing slaves and made them have babies. Ducked up but made generic freaks.

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Gastronomicus t1_irbeadm wrote

> Ironically, most top sprinters are either North American or Caribbean black people. I rarely see someone from West Africa winning. You’d think way more folks from West Africa would be winning if it was mostly genetics

It's genetics AND the money to sponsor and promote athletes. The west has the money, and many of those top sprinters in those regions clearly trace their lineage to West Africa.

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adkayaker t1_ircevom wrote

I hate the it’s all genetics argument so much. It completely invalidates all the training involved to do this. “Oh he’s just genetically better, if I had his genetics I’d be setting the record marathon times”. 99.99% of people if given his genetics wouldn’t be record setting marathoners. They’d still be where they are today. Yes genetics can play a role and can be a difference between the elite of the elite but 99+% of his performance is from his training.

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CommercialAddress168 t1_ireaqh0 wrote

I came here to say this.

Long distance running is a skill, just like every single thing humans learn to do. Spend hours/years doing something, throw in some very specific training conditions, and a specific intention and you get what Kipchoge is doing now.

Talent is a myth. Skill development is the real gold and you can look at the environment/conditions for many greats to see how they got their.

Tiger Woods is a quick example. Not genetics! Started learning golf at 3 with a father who guided and directed a very regimented trading program. He was competing at 10 I believe. No wonder he became the greatest.

A great non sporting example is Eminem and his Detroit rap group D12. They all grew up rapping with each other and focusing on making it. Granted, they didn’t all reach the same level of popularity as Em, but how do you think Em got so good…genetics?

“The Talent Code” is a great book which goes deeper into this concept.

Respect the skill!

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[deleted] t1_ird8nvy wrote

How can your number be interpreted? Do you say that out if 100000 newborns, if all trained minimally better a 90+% would beat his marathon times?

Do you think height isn't important in basketball? Or do you think it is the result of good Training?

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CommercialAddress168 t1_ireaxx3 wrote

Muggsy Bouges showed us height didn’t matter in basketball. Dude was legit at 5’3”.

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sweptawayfromyou t1_ird3mn3 wrote

That’s also what I thought… at like 10 after seeing a marathon for the 2nd time or something!

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Chris857 t1_irb1rts wrote

"It's not a sprint it's a Marathon" - actually is just a long sprint now I guess

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climsy t1_irbu0yu wrote

A lot of people couldn’t even keep this pace on a bicycle for two hours straight. Insane.

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