![]() ![]() ![]() More than 50 per cent of the 100 fastest times in middle and long distance running have been recorded by East Africans (around 70 per cent for the 500 metres). Over the same distance, the fastest 200 times ever recorded are shared among athletes of West African descent. Of the 32 finalists in the 100 metres in the last four Olympics, there was not a single competitor who was not of West African origin. And on a more fundamental level, it's almost certainly true to say that all of us, of whatever colour or race, originate from Africa.Įven allowing for these qualifications, though, there is no doubt that the patterns of distribution of athletic success among different ethnic groups are strikingly pronounced. Even employing a broad definition of race, there are three major ethnic populations in Africa: West African, East African and North African (the last of which is not usually described as black). ![]() For example, on the running track every world record in major events from the 100 metres sprint through to the marathon is currently held by athletes of African origin.Īgain, some clarification is required. Nevertheless if 'black' is used in its loose sense to denote people of African origin, then black athletes enjoy a huge over-representation at the highest level of many sports. Indeed, many anthropologists dismiss the very concept of race because population groups can be distinguished by a variety of markers, of which skin colour is arguably the most unreliable and misleading. The inverted commas are there to signify the near-meaninglessness of the word black as a term of racial description. It is probably only a coincidence that theories of genetic determinism have taken hold of the world of science at the same time as 'black' athletes have gained supremacy in the world of sport, but their simultaneous triumph has led, inevitably, to much speculation about the genetic edge that black sportsmen and women may enjoy over their white competitors. Which is to say, it provides back-up to an unthinking stereotype, not necessarily an offensive stereotype, but one that could easily be conflated with those that are. What is beyond doubt is that, regardless of its strengths or flaws, the book plugs into a belief that is widely shared but seldom stated: that people with black skin are better suited to the athleticism of sport than people with white skin. Elsewhere the book has been praised as brave, reasoned and honest. 'Didn't we hear all this in Germany in 1936?' asked Richard Lapchick, the founder of America's Centre for the Study of Sport in Society. One critic, writing in the New York Times, described the book as 'demagogic quackery' and a 'piece of good-old fashioned American anti-intellectualism', while another drew parallels with Nazi ideology. Provocatively entitled Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports And Why We're Afraid To Talk About It, the book has brought up to date a controversy that, in various guises, has been stirring ever since black sportsmen began regularly beating their white counterparts. Of course, all elite athletes, even the most chemically enhanced, are by definition natural athletes, winners in the genetic lottery, but there is evidence that athletes from certain racial backgrounds are, so to speak, more natural than the rest.Įarlier this year, a book was published in America that claims to bring scientific clarity to a subject that has long been blurred by myth. For black sportsmen and women, however, the compliment often bears a troubling subtext: the suspicion that they possess an unfair genetic advantage. Are black sprinters, then, naturally better? In the current climate of body worship and sports celebrity, it would be hard to imagine a more positive or less derogatory epithet than 'natural athlete'. You could, without any gift of clairvoyancy, go even further and safely forecast that not one finalist will be white. The winner of the men's 100 metre gold medal will be black. But there is one prediction that any sports fan can make without even thinking. The best runners might be injured, out of form or, for political reasons, not selected. At the forthcoming Olympics there will be few racing certainties.
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