olympic swimming
 

Why are there so few non-caucascian swimmers?

You'd think it'd be a similar level of physique/fitness/endurance/stamina to athletics....

Not sure...

1. Culture...some sports win over others among some groups?
2. Cheap access to sporting facilities?
3. Work ethic? Some cultures put more importance on work than 'play'

I have noticed that too, its the same as when i go to crufts, I hardly ever see any other dog lovers other than the white folk :D

Also - India. One of the largest populations in the world, yet Olympic performance is poor. Compare to China, which has a big Olympics history.

Odd.

Not the most advanced country in the world India, is it.

India's easy to explain. There's no cricket in the Olympics!

Similar level to China though. Both are nuclear equipped.

The masses in China have a higher standard of living compared to the masses in India though surely?? I'm not 100% on this though....

How can you categorise the following nations.....

India
Pakistan
Bangladesh

You term Taiwan, Japan, China etc as "oriental" but is there any way to categorise the other Asian countries stated above???

Indians are **** at swimming I know that much. There was an Indian lad that always used to get lobbed in the deep end at swimming lessons at school. He was ****.

Heavy Bones?

Dense.

Never seen more compelling evidence in my life!! :D

Hoping not to generalise too much here but many Indian kids are expected to either help Dad out with his business, or study and pass to a high level. Sport is just not a priority. Of course you'd be crap at it.

China does well because the amount of state money chucked at sport. It's prestige and the Chinese are excessively nationalistic...if you though the Yanks were bad....

lol. Was a joke.

lol. So was mine.

I suspect that's not true.

Is it not simply genetic based on racial background?

You know - white men can't jump, black men can't swim, etc?

Something to do with skeletal and muscle structure?

As far as black people are concerned it's to do with their type of musculature not being suited to swimming but better adapted to more explosive exercise such as athletics.

The Chinese, although less well suited than whites to the physiological demands of swimming have a long history of supporting sports and whilst their facilities may not match those of America or Australia, they certainly spend more money developing their athletes than India.

India doesn't really have a developed programme for swimming much less the amount of swimming pools needed for training. If you compare the British swimmers to Australians, for example, you'll see that in general they can turn quicker mainly due to the plethora of short (25m) pools that we have compared to the Olympics sized pools the Aussies have - they have to turn more frequently!

Apart from money and facilities available, it's more a case of the caucasian physique being better suited to swimmming.

Is that really true or are you just speculating.

North Africans, for example, seem good at non-expolosive endurance athletic events (marathon, 10000m, etc).

Also, 400m athletics probably requires the same "explosion" of power as a 100m swim does.....

It's certainly not just a country/ culture thing - though it is worth bearing in mind that in a lot of these countries women are required to remain fairly well covered up - so swimming is unlikely to be a popular passtime!

I used to swim competetively at countly level when I was a teenager - and I was based in a strongly multicultural area near Wolverhampton (I actually used to train with the same club as Nick Gillingham). You still hardly ever saw black or asian swimmer and I was always told it was a phsiology thing.

I do remember a guy with one leg though - and he was damned fast! :D

I used to sign up to this theory, but you only have to look at any top level athletic endeavour (ie not darts) to see just how dominant black races are now. In my opinion they could dominate any sport they put their minds to; they just haven't had the facilities, training and so on to compete in swimming, for example. Yet. :)

The musculature aspect is true. I remember watching a programme explaining the differences a few years ago, however, my explanation as to the differences may be inadequate.

Darts is not a sport for athletes agreed. It is however a sport..... ;)

Just kidding.

Tel. The US has more than enough blacks within it's athletic ranks to prove that your point is invalid. Look at their Athletics team which is dominated by blacks and yet I can only think of one in their Swimming team. The same goes for the UK, France and many other countries with a significant black community.

The reason why north africans are good at long distance running is heat and breathing. They're used to living/training in high heat, high altitude environments. So when they come to run in a cooler place with more air, they find it a breeze ;) and can run faster for longer.

Don't follow what you're saying, F'D. I'm saying that due to socio-economic reasons, black athletes are still less likely to get into swimming than, say, running, or basketball. And therefore are less represented at sports like swimming at the highest levels.

On a level playing field (or swimming pool!), i reckon they'd take all the honours, or at least the majority of them.

Black people are on the whole more athletic.

Thats only cos they used to have to run to the river to collect water 4 times a day!!!

(sorry!!!! :D)

People will shout you down and call you racist but you're not far wrong.

I'd agree that they would be more likely to compete in running or basketball events but the reason I'd give is that these are events that suit their physiological make up, rather than swimming which doesn't. I can't accept the socio-economic argument purely because swimming facilities are as accessible to blacks as they are to whites and despite people commentating on the expense of swimming (from what I've read) I don't see that as a barrier either.

The point I was making earlier about the US team is that it has a high number of blacks competing in various sports and given the superior facilities that they have (and the money spent on sport) you'd have seen more black swimmers if the sport suited them. They do like to win after all.

:)

African long distance runners - Its all in the hips!