One of the most frequently used excuses by white athletes everywhere is, “Well it’s cuz they’re black.” This provides a reason for a lack of height on jumps, lack of speed and lack of endurance running compared to their black counterparts. Is there a truth to this excuse though? The article “The African Runners Phenomenon,” published in The Journal of Sports Medicine in May of 2014, offers some evidence that the excuse may be valid when referring to long distance running, (sorry white men complaining about jumping in basketball).
The first case study in the article discusses how as of late, distance running has been dominated by African Americans. The study looks at how, “In the 1980’s… Of the top 20 runners worldwide, 50% were from Europe, and only 30% were from Africa.” (Vancini, 1) Today we rarely see a long distance or middle distance race dominated by a white athlete, in fact the article says that today, “…The percentage of European runners among the best in the world has fallen to 11%, while that of African runners has jumped to 85%.” (Vancini, 2)
Why the change? It’s not like the white athletes stopped training and just gave up. So how did these, predominantly Kenyan African Americans gain such an advantage? “Several factors in the complex interaction between genotype and phenotype have been proposed to explain the particular success of African runners, or the “African runners phenomenon…However, evidence for a genetic component in physical performance is mounting, and more than 200 identified genetic variants may contribute to the observed variations in physical fitness..” (Vaccine, 4) The article highlights just one of the genetic factors that could be linked to athletic prowess.
These African runners tend to show a more favorable gene expression of the genes ACE and ACTN3. which allows them to start with a “greater capacity for performance in power testing, aerobic endurance tests, cardiorespiratory fitness, maximal oxygen uptake, and high altitude tolerance”. (Vancini 6) There are three possible ways this gene can be expressed that can give certain advantages. Everyone has the gene, it is just a matter of how the gene is expressed. I.e. The ACE gene is sometimes found on the 16 intro on the 17th chromosome, expression here leads to “greater cardiorespiratory fitness and tolerance to altitude or increased musculoskeletal fitness for power athletes”(Vancini,10).
There are many factors that influence your running ability and the article doesn’t answer all of them. It does however offer an argument as to how the world running circuit is dominated by African Americans in favor of genetic differences. This is just something to think about the next time you hear the excuse, “It’s cuz he’s black”.
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