Could Your Nationality Affect Your Preformance?

If you watch any form of event in the Olympics, more often than not you will notice that there is a particular country that dominates the sport. For example the Spanish and Brazilian are usually credited with having the best football players in the world. In the famous Olympic 5000m race, all the first place medallists from 1996 to 2008 have been Ethiopian. 20 out of 25 1st place runners in the marathon have been Kenyan. This has become a recurring trend, seeing them dominate all sorts of distance races. So why is this?

Some people claim that it is the training they undergo. Ethiopians are known for having a strong finish, one in particular, Miruts Yifter who has been fondly nicknamed 'Yifter the Shifter' due to his finishing lap in the 10 000 in 1980. Their incredible finishes have been credited to the amount of speed and hill work they do. They finish every training session with 50m strides and they work on steep, short hills, ensuring they keep their form throughout.


Photo credit: http://www.runnersworld.com/sites/default/files/rtx12onu500.jpg

Another theory is to do with the fact that they train at such high altitudes, which develops their lungs in thin air, meaning that when they come to tracks and race courses in places such as Boston, their body is functioning on twice the amount of air it is used to, giving them an advantage over the other competitors.

Others claim that it is genetics that allow the Ethiopians, and Kenyans as well,
to excel at distance running. One of the strongest arguments about the Kenyan genes is that many of its best runners originate in the Great Rift Valley, which is believed to be where homo sapiens first came from. The community is isolated which has led to claims that there is 'genetic drift' in that region. Genetic drift means that there are similar traits amongst the people living in the area.

No one of these theories have actually been proven to be true and everyone has their own opinion on the topic. One thing we can all be sure of though is that the Ethiopians and Kenyans are an extraordinarily talented group of people and excellent athletes.