Ok fist this is being posted as my sons grade 4 teacher in class so nicely proclaimed that black people are better at short sprints then white people but not at long distance running. So I decided to start digging up actual stats. Unfortunately I have had not a lot of success. The teacher gave me a link www.junetime.com which I have not been able to load.
From what I have read yes non Caucasians seem to do very well in all running sports. To me this is great but not any thing to say hey look at the conclusions I can make from this data set. I realize altitude of you home and things in the environment can effect you performance at some activities but that is not race based.
Any one out there that can help with this question would be great.
Sorry JB if this is in the wrong spot move it but I thought it might end up producing some interesting facts that effect professional sports.
I partly disagree with your teacher. Black athletes are better at both long and short distance running. Africans dominate the long distances while Americans and Caribbeans are the kings of sprint.
In swimming the opposite applies. Why this is the case is beyond me but would make an interesting thesis. I personally think that African conditioning would explain their excellent endurance traits.
First question would be; Why is a teacher telling this to her students especially when it is not factual or scientific information? There is a Thread somewhere about the comparison between Black vs. White Athletes but this one is good because of the situation in which it was brought up.
Well she read an article that I have been attempting to pull from the web. It stated black people have a "faster twitch fibre" and shorter tendons that allow then to have a quicker response time thus being faster runners(though the teacher did say sprinter and not good at long distance). I am severely concerned and have expressed this both to the teacher and principle. The article she handed me had no scientific proof unless being wrote by a black athlete counts.
So far I am finding little to prove the statements one way or the other.
I will also give another try at finding that other thread perhaps something can be found in it to guid my search farther.
I am surprised and disheartened they teach these lessons at school. It's hardly encouragement for you children to ply sports. I don't thin it is impossible for white athletes to compete with black athletes. To be honest, most of the sprinters take performance enhancing drugs at any rate so it is hard to know who is better at what. I know in the distance events there is an Australian runner called Craig Mottram who can match the Africans on his day. He is right up there with the very best.
This blog has some interesting insight and comment on the issue
Black v White athletes
I think every race just generally controls their domain:
Orientals good at balancing / acrobatics
Africans good at endurance / boxing / strength
Caucasians good at winter sports, climbing, etc
I think it is both due to genetics and environment. I found the following link that may be helpful:
https://run-down.com/guests/je_black_athletes_p2.php