STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

Take the mens 100m as your example. Surely the most basic sporting event, all you have to do is run as fast as you can (very simplified I know). The skill element is minimal compared to other sports. If you look at the world population as a whole and look at the various ethnic groups. Now compare the relative percentage to the ethnic groups that have competed in the mens 100m Olympic final over the past 20 years. It is totally disproportionate. This may happen in all sports but not to this extent! Why is this then? IMHO it's down to genetics giving certain ethnic groups an advantage in this particular event.

Tiggs

also the 100m takes away most of the social economic differences as its cheap to learn to run! and the desire to emulate others (a huge factor in sporting success) should apply equally as there were plenty of white runners a few years back. and there is also a universal liking of the event by most people so it doesnt suffer from sterotyping that might stop people getting into it (like rowing/tennis)

T

ChristianR

iTrader: (1)

ginger people have thicker hair than blonde/brown/black hair.

Katana

I'd rather make my money from my academic and business abilities. I do sports just as a hobby. I know I'm not the biggest, strongest or the best there is and though theoretically I can always train to be the best, the rewards thats offered by being a profesional sportsman is pale compared to being say, an engineer.

Professional athletes can only be on top for a certain amount of time. Rarely do you see someone dominating for more than a few years (*and don't say Sergei Bubka ). I'd rather have something more concrete to fall back to.

Tiggs

good point, i expect beckham, henman, lewis, etc are very worried

im sure if i felt i could be a professional sportsman i'd opt for some good old engineering as well!

T

Katana

How many Beckhams, Henman or Lewis are out there? They've got something I don't and thats talent. I'm gifted in the cerebral department. Should I sacrifice that gift just to persue a career where I'm almost certain not to dominate in?

Tiggs

"and though theoretically I can always train to be the best"

so you didnt mean that then?

Katana

Theoretically I could, but you also forgot the fact that I'm motivationally challenged and would prefer to have a cushy office job.

Tiggs

so you are serious that, aside from motivational issues, you could train to be the best at a sport of your choice?

seems you have the gentics of a dreamer

T

MarkO

That's 60 minutes more than I fancy.

jasey

I bet Sergei is quite happy with his mats

davyboy

I know this is going off topic now, but the Williams sisters are deeply religious (Jehovas Witness).

Maybe this has something to do with it, not all genes?

jasey

I think it's got more to do with pushy (greedy) parents than religious beliefs !

TelBoy

Nice comments guys - well kept on track after the initial "racist" BS. As a former competitive bodybuilder, all the slow twitch / fast twitch stuff was particularly relevant, and something i had to be aware of to maximise my potential.
But it is interesting as somebody pointed out, that top bodybuilding winners have been both black and white. But i reckon that's because steroids are strong enough to overcome nature, so anyone who takes enough and trains hard enough can win. Whether we'd see the same results if there were no steroids is a different matter. I only hope nobody ever proves the Williams sisters have been artificially aided, for their sakes.
And i hope is that the Williams sisters' tennis is not what we're going to have to get used to from the women. Power is what killed off the men's game for a lot of people. Sure it's impressive, but i for one, will make precisely zero effort to watch saturday's final - it just doesn't do it for me.

Terry

fast bloke

You could have a point here. Did anyone notice how many of the Brazilian football team had undershirts saying 'Jesus loves you' Maybe the goals were the foot of Ronaldo and the Hand of God?

paulr

Don't knock the Williams sisters for being so good.........its the others that are so crap(comparatively,of course).

EvilBevel

Not commenting on the role of (obvious) genetic differences really determining success in things like the NBA etc ... but this comment is not correct. I thought Teilhard de Chardin was long proven wrong.

Genetic differences/variations are not induced by behaviour. You can not influence your genes (not talking about deseases or genetic manipulation obviously).

carl

There is no doubt that Kenyans/Ethiopians/et al make for very good middle/long distance runners. However, I remember the days when this distance -- particularly in the women's events -- was dominated by Eastern Europeans, most of which were from East Germany. I assume their dominance was down to a ridiculous training regime (AIUI they identified the runners at an early age -- sometimes as early as 3 -- and started their training to the exclusion of all else).

I also agree that 'power tennis' is ruining the game. One of the reasons (apart from the obvious one) that I preferred to watch women's tennis is there seems to be more skill in it (not just 'ace, ace, ace'), but if the Williams sisters are typical of the next generation then I see it going the same way as men's tennis.

PS: I always thought it was bizarre that Pete Sampras's hands seem to swing at around the level of his knees

dsmith

To suggest there is no skill in the wiiliams sisters tennis is probably very unfair. Yes they are more powerful - but also more skillfull than the current opposition.

carl

I don't disagree that the Williams sisters have skill. It's just not interesting tennis.

There was a statistic from a few years ago that said during the men's final at Wimbledon that year (it was probably Sampras ), only on two occasions had the ball gone over the net more than twice. I don't call that interesting to watch [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

MarkO

It's much better this year though. There's been loadsa good rallies - particularly in Henman's matches. If the bloody rain ever stops, Henman/Hewitt should be more of the same, and not so many aces...