I dont know man. In every aspect of life, those that represent the top 1% are there because they did something the other 99% of us suckers were not prepared to do or did not have access to.
Genetics is most of it. You can’t outrun Bolt no matter what.
I disagree:
Rules are there to ensure a level playing feild. Sports men/women don’t like fair and level. They like advantages.
Yeah, and they aren’t testing those who come in 1st anymore.
The weight is one thing, but the rate of progress is a huge red flag, as I have already said.
You can’t blame everything on drugs. There are guys who take steroids and lift less than me. Genetics and lifestyle (as in sleep, nutrition, etc.) play a huge role.
Apparently Bolt wasn’t even one of the top sprinters for a long time, he was just an average guy but for one reason or another made some crazy progress.
But on the topic of genetics, apparently there is a gene which happens to be very common among Jamaicans (as in much less rare than for the rest of the world) that causes them to have an unusually strong response to training. However this gene also is associated with health issues like high blood pressure and other things. This is something that was recently discovered by some scientists. I don’t have a link for you, but you could look it up, it’s a real thing.
It is west African (which is where Jamaicans come from).
One of the genes that has evolved due to adapting to living in a high malaria region also is responsible for high fast twitch muscle fiber ratio. It is why basically nobody without west African genetics has won a major sprinting event for like the last 50 years.
Apparently the gene/genes is also much more common among Jamaicans than either West Africans or the rest of the Caribbean.
Not sure about it having to do with malaria, you might have that mixed up with another gene that causes sickle cell. Malaria used to be all over the place, even Europe and Canada. When they built the canal in Ottawa, people were dying from malaria.
Interesting. I remember from the book the sports gene, that people from West Africa had a greater chance to have a high ratio of fast twitch to slow twitch fibers. It may have been sickle cell, not malaria adaptations that are believed to cause this. I am just going off of memory for the previous post.
Jamaicans are generally of West African descent. Basically those genetics have an advantage that they are more likely to have advantageous fast twitch fiber ratio for speed. It is possible to have that ratio without being of that group, just much less likely.
Haven’t heard anything in regards to Jamaicans specifically being different. They would have different adaptations as they have been on that island for a good period of time.
It has nothing to do with sickle cell, the genes are ACTN3 and ACE.
You can look around to see what the exact ratios are but I have heard several times that it is more common in Jamaica than elsewhere. Supposedly it has to do with the conditions in Jamaica during slavery being even more brutal than elsewhere.
" Startlingly, the double copy of the ACTN 3 gene is found in 72% of Jamaican citizens. To put this in to perspective, the gene is found in 76% of Olympians."
“In people of west African origin, the frequency of the variant is slightly higher than in those of European and Japanese origin. In Jamaica, it’s a little higher than in west Africa.”
Thanks! Will keep this in mind.
On this subject, the Michael Johnson went out to Jamaica for a BBC Documentary to investigate why Jamaica produces so many elite sprinters. Here’s a Youtube link
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Doco is about slaves
Have you actually watched it? It investigates whether there is a reason why Jamaica excels at sprinting (as I ever so briefly explained above the video).
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Watched 90% of it. All about slaves. Jamaica got a lot of the strongest and fittest. Makes sense. A white guy said this years ago and got sacked for it.
Ah. I see you have an agenda and that’s why you are dismissing the documentary as “all about slaves”. I’ll leave you to it. Happy July 4th all.
It’s about slaves. Did you not watch it? No agenda here. Something odd about you though.
Of course I watched it I was the one who originally posted it you helmet. Look elsewhere for an argument please you’re boring me…
What are you even trying to argue about? It’s impossible to talk about genetics in a place like Jamaica without discussing slavery.
Which white guy?
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Then why are you bitching? Most of the film is Johnson talking about his family and how he benefited from something bad.
It’s in the doco.