-
-
Interesting......
Man, I can't for the life of me track down the article but I seem to remember reading and SI article in the early 90's discussing the human 100m limits - even with PEDs.....and my fuzzy memory tells me the best minds on the subject 15-16 years ago were wrong. Does anyone remember that article??You there, on the motorbike! Sell me one of your melons! -
Briefly skimming through the articles, I recognize the first as one we
have already discussed (rather negatively), and consider the second
a re-hash of things we already have heard, thought, or discussed.Comment
-
but as the human species evolves over time, the fixed notions of human performance can change...
darwin and all that... who'd a thought some one 6'6'' capable of being the qucikest guy on the planetComment
-
Darwinian evolution is not going to make much of a change in the level of track and field performance over the course of 50 years or even 200, as the rate of selection is way too slow and it is not at all clear how greater reproductive success is tied to characteristics that are valuable for track performance. I am sure that gh could add more on this topic.Originally posted by az2004Comment
-
Th assumption here is that there has to be positive selection. Just the fact that many of the athletes have kids together could be enough. No selection involved there, more like geographic isolation; the only people they get to know well are the others on the european tour (or would that be social isolation?).Originally posted by 26mi235Comment
-
My impression is that such athletes often have only a few children and thus there are relatively few candidates for top performance. Of our top sprinters, how many have a world-class parent, much less two?Originally posted by Daisy
An interesting side consideration is that it might be that in areas like Kenya (Rift Valley etc), good genes for running have been systematically making for more successful families for a number of decades/generations. In this case, selection might be at least a little bit of the observed effect.Comment
-
you don't have to prove you are sporting to have great sporting offspring - just the potential, as many of the parents don't pursue sports
i've lost count of the number of 6"5 nigerians with about as much fat on them as a hummingbird, that i've seen over the years
invariably i asked them, "are you a basketball player?" & standard answer i got back was "no ! i'm an accountant!"
occasionaly they bought their spouses in - heavy boned 5"10+ women, who were usually also accountants or lawyers
you didn't have to be nostradamus to figure out their kids coud be dynamite at any sport they chose !Comment
-
There has never been a great Nigerian sprinter (some good ones Ezinwa, Adeniken, Imoh) so it's a bit of a stretch to say they would be some of the best ever. Perhaps it hasn't been developed but still 3 of the top what 200 ever? You could a good case too that USA has too many great "potential" sprinters playing football and basketball.Comment
-
obikwelu, fasuba, ogunkoyaComment
-
Missed a couple..forgot about Obi..either way on the all-time performance, Nigeria has 27 fasuba, 38 obi, 108A (Ogunkoya), 126 twice obi/fasuba, 153 ogun again and ezinwa, aliu at 180..so 8 out of 200 top performances inc 1 at altitude...very solid but still very low to suggest that Nigeria could have alot more GREAT sprintersComment
-
do that same list a coupla years ago & you woud have had a lot more different statsComment
Tweet
Comment