know many black guys row sub 6???

and 5-6 mins is a LONG time to be anerobic

No, I don't know of any - that's the point :D

Damn you got to it before I zapped it :D

It is looking more like it is to do with social background and cost than it is to do with some genetic reason for why black should be less prevalent in swimming is what I was trying to get at. Not saying there isn't some king of advantage to being a white swimmer, just haven't found anything yet to support that

Think he is an absolute superstar, shame he retired really but i guess they all have to at some point.

He was one of my idols when i was at school, hehe!

I'd agree that mental toughness does play a part but this can be "trained in" provided a decent sporting academy is in place.

I'm guessing that you're too young to remember but Australia used to be a sporting and cultural backwater until the government of the time began to develop an infrastructure to support them - think Australian Institute of Sport and Sydney Opera House etc etc.

Without decent grass roots training, which Australia has an abundance of you're making it very hard to find sporting success and prior to this development Australia hardly won much outside of the traditional cricket, rugby and swimming events.

I've already pointed out the relative success the UK had in the last Olympics as a result of Lotto funding but I'll stick my neck out and say that the GB Sailing team will do very well in this Olympics (barring Ainslie's unfortunate start) and this is a direct result of having the best training facilities and also being well funded. A further example would be the Rugby team which was developed along similar lines.

In Miami the police were trying to recruit black officers and had to remove the "need to be able to swim" from the job requirements!

PMSL

F'D is right about the physique not being suited to swimming. (fit) African people have a lower bodyfat / muscle-bone ratio & (generally) have heavier bones- making them more dense.

As everyone knows fat is lighter than water.

The African's have to expend more energy staying afloat than Caucasians as their body it (by volume) heaver than Caucasians.

Although it's only a small difference, in a competition where every fraction of a second counts - their physique puts them at a disadvantage even before they get in the water.

Is it still the case that a white male has never run the 100m in under 10 secs?

ppl here would have you belive thats for socio-econmic reasons :rolleyes:

I was told years ago that the reason there were no world class black swimmers was that they had different movement in their Achilles heels and tendons which resulted in limited flexability compared to whites.

I don't know if this is true or just an urban myth.

It's because they will sink FFS!