Didn’t Jimmy The Greek Say Something Like This?
on July 14th, 2010 at 9:55 am
A new study by researchers at Howard University, a historically black school in Washington D.C., and Duke University in North Carolina suggests why black athletes may outperform athletes of other races in running events. Physical differences in the length of the limbs and the structure of the body mean the center of gravity tends to be higher in the bodies of black people, the researchers say.
Since 1968, the world record holders in the men’s 100-meter dash have been black athletes. And since 1912, when the International Association of Athletics Federations started keeping track of the record holders in that event, only 10 non-black athletes out of 38 individuals have held the title.
“There is a whole body of evidence showing that there are distinct differences in body types among blacks and whites,” said researcher Edward Jones, who researches adolescent obesity, nutrition and body composition at Howard University. “These are real patterns being described here. Whether the fastest sprinters are Jamaican, African or Canadian, most of them can be traced back generally to Western Africa.”
I’m anxious to also hear the scientific reasons why the Williams sisters dominate tennis, Tiger Woods used to dominate golf and how this brutha has been tearing it up in the chess world for a long time.
Thanks, Howard University!
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Yes! I had to give a shout out to Flo Jo with the picture for my ol’ skool folks.
