Black, white and shades of grey - what's behind sprint's race divide?

BBC ^ | 14 May 2024 | Ben Bloom

[JSM_Liberty]

In late 2009, the question everyone was asking was put to the man himself.

What made Usain Bolt – an era-defining champion of immense speed and consummate ease at just 23 – so fast?

Bolt cited his God-given talent, while crediting a diet that ranged from ultra-processed chicken nuggets to the Jamaican staple of yams. But he also pointed to the cruelties of man.

"I think over the years what makes Jamaica different is because of slavery really," he said of his sprinting roots. "The genes are really strong."

It is a hypothesis that existed before Bolt's comments and has persisted since; that the barbarity of the transatlantic slave trade, which forcibly took men, women and children from Africa and exported them into forced labour in the Caribbean, Brazil, the United States and elsewhere, still echoes in modern-day track and field.

The theory runs that the unnatural selection of black physical prowess centuries ago affects podium potential today.

Not since British sprinter Allan Wells triumphed at the boycott-hit Moscow 1980 Games has a white man made an Olympic or world 100m podium.

In fact, it was more than four decades after Wells' triumph that China's Su Bingtian became the next man without black parentage to even compete in an Olympic 100m final, in 2021.

During that time, black sprinters from North America and the Caribbean have claimed 24 out of 30 medals in the men’s 100m at the Olympics.

But was Bolt right? Does the link between modern glory and a dark past hold true? Or are appearances deceiving? In September 1995, Sir Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes and an eminent neurologist, stood up to speak at a conference in Newcastle. ...

[ifinnegan]

Yes. You make a good observation.

It’s not so cut and dried.

[Eagles6]

Predominance of fast twitch vs slow twitch muscle fibers,size ratio of leg muscles to rest of body, training methods.

As another poster said, usually a fraction of a second divides first place from third.