Tuesday, July 11, 2006

some more sports

as many know, i like sports. and, i work with a track program. this things allow me to argue many different points. one frequent topic revolves around sprinters, especially the racial make up of many of the best. i contend that any one can run fast. this is constantly demonstrated outside of the u.s. but here, we tell kids of certain colors that they aren't fast enough to be sprinters. i'm glad that world champion jeremy wariner didn't listen, and continues to run great times in the 200 and 400 meters. i was encouraged to find this story tonight. new world record in the 110m hurdles. set by a chinese guy. how many of you out there think sprinter & china in the same sentence? not many. to be fair, an american also dipped under the old record in the race as well. but still. and, another american ran the 2nd fastest 200m of all time.

in other good news, jurgen klinsmann stepped down as germany's head coach. this really opens up the chance for him to become the next u.s. coach.

5 comments:

timidvenus said...

so, when you say that an american dipped under the old record, i dont get it. was it a white american and that is why you are taking note, or you are just proud that the american did so well? are the races that are noted as being 'good' sprinters african? i am assuming that they are, but am not a follower at all of track and field sports. i hear 'sprint' and i think 50m freestyle.

edluv said...

they did mention the u.s. interest in klinsmann a few times during the cup. it makes sense on a lot of levels. he lives here in los angeles, is married to an american woman being two of them. also, our current coach has brought the program to a great level, but may not be able to take it beyond. someone like klinsmann may.


as for sprinting: along with the chinese record holder, an american also broke the record and finished 2nd. unfortunately, there isn't a record also beating the old record. i'm not sure on the racial makeup of the american sprinter. i was just proud to see that it was one of our guys running fast as well.

the usual argument is that blacks are faster sprinters than whites. it doesn't hold up when you consider many factors. for instance, why aren't the top sprinters african? and what do you do when you have the chinese/russian/french/whatever who isn't black that runs fast or sets a record? a better argument would be that the fastest sprinters are american. and even that doesn't always hold up.

Scott and Malisa Johnson said...

It wasn't until my first college match against UC Davis that I realized there weren't a lot of black swimmers. I guess I didn't think about it before, until I noticed that Davis had a great black distance freestyler. I was glad.

timidvenus said...

african people have the most dense bone marrow out of the three major races (caucasoid, mongoloid, negroid). this is said to make it harder for them to stay afloat, and has been a reason that they might not excell at swimming.

edluv said...

or socio economics has kept them from excelling at swimming. if you don't have access to a pool, coaching, encouragement you probably won't end up as a star.

tim duncan, basketball star, was an excellent swimmer growing up in martinique (i think that's where he's from). then he was introduced to basketball in h.s., and a star was born.