physical+abilities

__ Does race have any effect on people's physical abilities? __

Have you ever wondered if certain stereotypes are actually true? How about stereotypes dealing with different races playing in sports? This page will attempt to find if these stereotypes are true or if they have any aspect truth to them. Examples of these stereotypes include that kenyans win every race they enter, that americans are biologically better at basketball, and that east asians are more flexible. What would validate these stereotypes is evidence that there is some sort of biological difference that makes certain people taller than others. Another aspect that will be looked into is if race has any say in your things dealing with the body (height, weight, etc.). Although some people may consider a large population of a race in one sport to be proof of a biological advantage, this is not necessarily a direct relation.

Using results from the main international competition, the olympics, it has been found that people from certain regions tend to have a propensity to do better or worse than others. Like Joseph Graves says **EXPLAIN WHO HE IS**, "Is it likely that an Alaskan Eskimo is going to become a center in the NBA?" Since the answer should be no based on past examples, this could be interpreted as since the Alaskan Eskimos tend to be short and stout to conserve body heat in their cold environment, their bodies make them less likely to play basketball. Another example of how race might have an effect on physical abilities is that most of the 100 meter dash records are held by West Africans. Also, many of the long distance running records and held by people of Kenyan descent.

Above, you can see a [|distribution map] of the number of medals won by countries in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

MORE INTERESTING MIGHT BE A BREAKDOWN BY EVENT. AS YOU NOTE, CALASKANS HAVE FEW TALL CENTERS. ALSO, CHINA TRAINS ITS ATHLETES A LOT. In defense to some of the things stated above, it is unclear whether race has any direct effect on the records being broken by those people, or if it was directly because of their single ancestry. For example, West Africans held the sprinting records because they are from West Africa or because they have both European and American Indian ancestry. It has also been found that a portion of the runners who set records have those two ancestries. Also pertaining to West Africans is that it was found that a majority of the record holders trained in America, Canada, Great Britain, or the Carribean. This suggests that it was not their races affecting the outcomes. Along the same lines as this, it is possible that the Kenyan's success in distance running is due to the fact that they trained in high altitude places. It has even been found that Kenyans that trained in low altitude places were less successful. Keeping these two examples in mind, Joseph Graves offers the alternative idea that the best way to tell how good someone will be at sports is to look at the components of the individual's history.

In conclusion, it has been observed that race can affect certain attributes of people such as body attributes and things that make up the body. However looking at these physical abilities from a biological stand point and then comparing them to athletic output, not enough correlation is observed to conclude that race directly affects people's physical abilities. Instead, correlation has been found between the environment that the people grow up and train in and their success in sports, which may or may not be indirectly affected by race.

 Above, you can see that in a [|height calculator] it factors in what ethnic group you are in.

AnnBibMaydew

 Where I would like to go next: The next question that I would like to answer is what specifically would race have any effect on. If any argument is to be made that race does have an effect, there must be an example of biological differences that derives from people being different races. I plan to answer this question using a medical journal article that I found that talks about different races having different muscle fibers and how long it takes them to react. The next question that I would like to answer is if these differences have enough of an effect on athletics or if they can actually give a person an advantage.