ABSTRACT
The sporting achievements of distance runners from Kenya and Ethiopia and sprinters from Jamaica are impressive; Ethiopia, Kenya, and Jamaica won 36 per cent of all track medals for men and women at the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing. The success of east African athletes at distance running and Jamaican athletes at sprinting will have undoubtedly further enhanced the concept that certain ethnic groups possess some inherent genetic advantage predisposing them to superior athletic performance (e.g., the idea of black athletic supremacy). This idea has emerged from overly simplistic interpretations of performances; combined with the belief that similar skin colour indicates similar genetics (Cooper, 2004). Such stereotyping has been strengthened, sometimes inadvertently, by scientists investigating ethnic differences in sports performance. One approach compared the work capacities of sedentary subjects from different ethnic/racial backgrounds. In a review of performance studies from as early as 1941, it was concluded that there were no differences between racial groups in maximal aerobic power, while small differences reported in sub-maximal work efficiency and endurance performance were attributed to differences in mechanical efficiency owing to test mode and/or level of habituation to the ergometers used for testing (Boulay et al., 1988). These authors concluded ‘Thus there does not appear to be valid and reliable evidence to support the concept of clear racial differences in work capacities and powers’. This review has been largely ignored and research efforts have continued with increased vigour to find the elusive evidence to explain the African dominance in sports such as running.
