Out of Africa: the speed gene genie (here we go again!)

[Mosiah]

Out of Africa: the speed gene genie
By ANDREW STEVENSON - SMH | Saturday, 23 August 2008

Reuters
AFRICAN SPEED: 15 of the 16 runners the men's and women's 100 metre sprint finals traced their ancestry to West Africa.

Gold medallists raise their fists in jubilation and sleep well at night knowing they're the best in the world. Drawn from about 200 countries, they compete against one another under the utopian banner, "One world, one dream".

But did they really beat the world or do the specific genetic characteristics of different population groups mean that the Olympics - open to ever-wider participation in the shrinking global village - are actually a race narrowed down to rivals from their own distinct ethnic group?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4666624a27896.html

[Sir X]

A Jamaican urologist, William Aiken, ......My laaaad he couldnt pose another question what if all the world had a system of Champs would we still be in a 100m final ?

[Islandman]

I wish they would stop mixing the obviously legitimate observation of the elite sprinters all over the world being of primarily West African descent, with the dubious theory of Jamaicans getting the strongest slaves because it was the last stop, and this making a difference in terms of sprinting,