Freak of Nature

[shtove]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (KZNSharksFan @ Aug 19 2009, 12:20 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

The West African forebears of the current day black population throughout the carribbean and America's are naturally very good athletes. Throw in the fact that only the most physically fit Africans were sold into slavery and that a very small proportion of those sold actually survived the trip across the atlantic, and you have the most "refined" gene pool in the world.
That's why these guys are so amazing.[/b]

BBC did a TV show last year with Colin Jackson - 110m hurdles WR holder, champion of everything, all round nice guy - to see where he got his athleticism from. His folks are from the Caribbean too.

They examined his background in the UK - pushy parents, opportunity to go for athletics early - and took a piece of flesh out his leg for lab analysis.

The most interesting thing was footage of an athletics meet in the Caribbean - thousands of poor, happy kids chanting and milling around a dirt track, really mad for field athletics. I think that was considered the main factor - he's obviously born with talent, but his family background gave him huge enthusiasm to develop and perfect the talent.

Judging by how those kids felt, I imagine Bolt is considered a god of gods back home.

BTW - Jackson is single in his late 30s and speaks with a bit of lithp. So I guess the nature/nurture argument continues.

 

[dullonien]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (shtove @ Aug 18 2009, 06:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

BBC did a TV show last year with Colin Jackson - 110m hurdles WR holder, champion of everything[/b]

Except Olympic

 

[jawmalawm24]

He's a natural born athlete I saw something on him saying his height gives him great advantage because of his strides it takes him something like 44 paces to do 100m where as it takes most other athletes 41. It probably doesn't sound like much 3 less paces but when you consider each pace being about 2m and some than times that by 3 that's a whole lot less effort.

 

[An Tarbh]

was expecting this thread to be about the South African 800m runner and whether she's a bloke or not. The Bolt issue was done to death last year, he's undoubtedly the most tested athlete on the circuit and given how much the testers have upped their game in finding illegal substances I seriously doubt he's up to anything. Bolt has been putting in phenomenal performances since he was a junior, it's not as if he came from nowhere to win the Olympics last year.

 

[bristol-iain]

As I wrote last summer abut Bolt at the Olympics;

"And the Jamaicans, seem to be experimenting with jet propelled trainers. If someone could check that Usian Bolt's parents are actually from Abercynon, teach him rugby and stick him on the wing I'd be very grateful."

This man is awesome, no way he is on enhancers, looks natural. Wondering how fast he can actually go, he wants 9.4.

 

[An Tarbh]

absolutely phenomenal performance from Bolt this evening, the 100m was always likely to go given that he eased up in Beijing but he ran through the tape in the 200 so to take 11 hundredths off that time and into a slight headwind was mind boggling.

 

[Hinch]

19.19 seconds in the 200m.

Yes, 19.19. And the "impossible to beat" Johnson time was 19.31, just a year ago...

The man's unreal. I'm surprised the NZRU haven't tried to make him relocate to Auckland and get him in the All Blacks.

 

[Hall]

Surely the guy gets tested so much that if something was amiss, they'd have caught him out by now?

 

[An Tarbh]

just imagine what he could do if he gets a 1.8 or 1.9 tail wind on a track like we saw at Atlanta.

 

[jawmalawm24]

Maybe Jamaica just come up with a drug that can't be detected because for some reason all their athletes seem to be doing really good. Bolt probably has been tested to death for drug related enhancers but didn't Carl Lewis and them get tested or Marian Jones but it just doesn't come out until later on.

Alot of Rugby players eat taro and that has a natural steroid in it so maybe Jamaica might be eating foods with natural enhancers who knows. I hope they're not because cheating just sucks plain and simple just ask Carl Lewis, Marion Jones, Ben Johnson, Justin Gatlin bloody drug cheats.

 

[erwanseb]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (jawmalawm24 @ Aug 24 2009, 06:01 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Maybe Jamaica just come up with a drug that can't be detected because for some reason all their athletes seem to be doing really good. Bolt probably has been tested to death for drug related enhancers but didn't Carl Lewis and them get tested or Marian Jones but it just doesn't come out until later on.

Alot of Rugby players eat taro and that has a natural steroid in it so maybe Jamaica might be eating foods with natural enhancers who knows. I hope they're not because cheating just sucks plain and simple just ask Carl Lewis, Marion Jones, Ben Johnson, Justin Gatlin bloody drug cheats.[/b]

Problem is that cheats cannot always be discovered.

Look at Florence griffith Joyner, the difference of morphology between 1984 and 1988 cannot be obtained by natural means alone, all medics agree on that but she was never caugth hence her world record will still hold some years to come.

Christine AARON who ran in 10'73 should be the world record holder as she was only beaten by Marion Jones and Florence Joyner but she will never be officially the record holder.

The world record on 400m still belongs to an east german athlete, is that fair ?? In a sense yes because you're inncoent until proven otherwise but you can't that too many clean and outstandings athletes are being unfairly deprived of medals and records.

Even when sometimes they receive their medal after the games due to some drug related late disqualifications, it is a totally different emotion than receiving the medal on the podium in a packed stadium.

Drugs are a terrible scourge, training hard your whole life to be beaten by a cheat is one hell of an injustice.

Hence the absolute necessity to keep drug out of rugby

To come back to Bolt, he would be a hell of a rugby player and to be fair does not have the morphology of a steroid user. Sincerely hope he is clean.

 

[TyphoonsRugby]

In other news...........OH MY GAWD

 

[gingergenius]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (KZNSharksFan @ Aug 18 2009, 01:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

The West African forebears of the current day black population throughout the carribbean and America's are naturally very good athletes. Throw in the fact that only the most physically fit Africans were sold into slavery and that a very small proportion of those sold actually survived the trip across the atlantic, and you have the most "refined" gene pool in the world.
That's why these guys are so amazing.[/b]

If your theory is correct, then why is it that British sprinters, who largely come from the same gene pool, consistently perform much worse (relatively) than Jamaicans, Trinidadians or Americans?

ALL humans of West African heritage have a genetic advantage when it comes to sprinting and jumping. This is why in countries like Britian, France and the USA where they form a minority, they are hugely overrepresented in sports. This is why every 100m final for agees has been 100% West African, and only 1 non-West African (interestingly an Indigenous Australian) has ever broken the 10 second barrier.

The fact that Americans and Jamaicans do so well is that their countries have a culture of sprinting and athletics in general, and they have the facilities there to maximise talent. Recently Nigeria has produced Obikwelu (before he went Portuguese) and Fasuba; Ghana had Zakari; all of these guys were world class sprinters, but they come from somewhere where there aren't the facilities and cultures in place to nurture talent to the top level.

Britain has a whole reel of talent - Jason Gardner, Christian Malcolm, Mark Lewis-Francis and Harry Aikines-Aryeety were all World Junior 100m champions. We'll see about Harry A-A but so far only Gardner has run sub 10 seconds, and he only did it once or twice before retiring. And apart from Harry A-A. they all come from West African - Carribbean stock, so they should achieve on a similar level to the Jamaicans according to the KZN theory. But in the UK there is a cushy culture which means some of our athletes don't train hard enough, and hence don't succeed.