There is a fair amount of people contributing to this thread with an ultracrepidarian tone.

If we're to be serious, we need to define "black". There are not many genuine negros in the Olympics. All the sprinters etc are half cast. Real negros are few and far between. It is true though that blacks in any sense just have superior physiques compared to pop bellied honkys.

Im not racist - hence the smiley - just thought it was a giggle! no offence to any1!!!

I know you're not. Just saying some people will see that and go all silly about it.

Oh now your just being inaniloquent!

I still see swimming as a middle/upper-class pursuit, F'D, especially for kids. I'd be surprised if *any* kids from, say, the Bronx are getting up at 5 a.m. to do 100 lengths, but not surprised at all if they got up to shoot 100 baskets...

Black? Please go back to Post No.1 and notice I said "non-caucascian".
A more PC term :D

white men cant jump.

read tabbo by john entine.

there are plenty of whites that would love to be in the 100ms and there are plenty of blacks exposed to swimming...certainly enough to see them at lower levels.

there are a few sports where blacks could dominate but arent exposed to it but swimming isnt one of them.

I'm not hugely bothered, but i still don't believe this, sorry. If there are as many up-and-coming black swimmers as there are non-black, i'm Father Christmas. (Although that could be true *today*, or at least more true than it was 15, 20 years ago. And if it is, we'll be seeing the results come through in a further 15, 20 years' time...)

The smile may well have come across a bit eccedentesiast though.....

I hadn't thought of swimming in terms of being a class pursuit and now you mention it I have to say I don't see it as an upper class endeavour but certainly the middle classes and to a lesser extent, the lower classes certainly pursue it.

In lieu of any hard and fast evidence, I guess we'll just have to disagree as all I can remember of the programme I saw was that it was presented by James Burke - I think.

imlach - I'd argue that a tall rangey white person with long limbs and larger than average hands and feet is the perfect physique for swimming. Whilst white swimmers have well developed musculature, it looks to me as if the muscles are longer than those on black athletes whose musculature looks shorter and denser to me. Your average asian or oriental is much shorter and carries less muscle than either of the aforementioned body types although if they are muscular it tends to be denser and shorter - not as well suited to swimming I'd have thought.

I'm not really into PC.

:D

my mother has coached for the last 20 years.....she sees every race come for lessons (although more white than anything...as is the norm) there are very few if any good natural black swimmers.

you go watch a class of 10 year olds and see.

T

ps- this has to be borne in mind by coaches and parents....my kid likes to sprint but im not going to push her into an event that she is not suited for because of her race. The same as i wont get my son (who will be well over 6ft) into horse racing.

IC2

Best one so far! :cool:

Don't forget that in Africa they a far more ethincally diverse thant the rest of us...meaning all non-africans.

That means some Kenyan tribes are better at endurance while some West African peoples are good at explosive muscle power sports like sprinting.

On the culture side of the argument you might have said 6 years ago why no blacks in tennis...(ok yannick noah or however it is spelt) but then along come the Williams girls....the first ones with the right training and backing plus dedication.

" I'd argue that a tall rangey white person with long limbs and larger than average hands and feet"

theres more to it than that...i bet Michael Jordan can afford to go swimming...id still whip his ass in a pool though!

I knew you'd be able to use that one!!!

"as on TV".

"but then along come the Williams girls....the first ones with the right training and backing plus dedication."

to small a number though. Its like saying Tiger woods means being black helps golf.

you take any kid and train him hard in a sport with heavy technique and skills and he will do well...race aside because the skills/technique issue levels the field.

train a white kid to run 100ms and hes never going to the olympics!

Sure, but their physiological attributes are not a barrier in tennis. If anything, being built like a brick ****house is an advantage in women's tennis giving them the ability to hit the ball harder than their opponents, who may have more skill but less power.

Hexackerly. The Dad pushed them into it - bingo. Swimming's no different, it just hasn't happened yet, in my opinion.


LOL, two completely different interpretations of the same statement!

Alan Wells anyone?

:D

Wouldn't happen in 2004, and only happened when it did because half the world didn't turn up (sorry Alan!)....

go find a kids swimming lesson and watch.

i have seen 1000's of ppl swim. i have seen 100's of white kids where i thought they could be great swimmers with a push. Never seen a great natural black swimmer.....but seen plenty of little black kids with some great musculature that would make them excellent sprinters.

i remember coaching a kid that was 8 and looked like a mini lee haney!

Yeah, but Alan would have kicked their arse in the pool.

:p

I think British sports performance has a lot to do with the culture too. You may point to facilities but football has tons of cash yet they can't field a consistently world dominating team, while a lot of dirt poor Brazilians make do with a tin can in the Favellas.
I've seen plenty of good sunny summer days here and seen local kids skulking around the shadows smoking fags while a huge green is unused. it's telling that the only kids out taking advantage of the weather are asian kids playing cricket.
When I was growing up in Oz rain hail or shine we got outside and played any kind of sport.

yeah...great example!

look at the stats for 100m and 200m running since then.

Fat English kids prefer to play on their playstation or hang about in shopping centres spitting on the floor.

It was a joke. A pedantic one.

Jamaican Bobsleigh team anyone? :D :D
Proved it can be done.....

:D