How did Kenenisa Bekele become this good?

good grief wrote:

maybe. but that's just your opinion, not a fact. you have no real idea if he's "talented" or not.

kenenisa bekele trains very hard from what i can recall. what in particular he does, i cannot recall at the moment.

When someone runs almost a full minute faster than I ever have at age 17 (I have trained hard for almost 12 years now), obviously there is a huge disparity in talent. When I was 17 I was training hard and barely broke 10 minutes for two miles.

It is a fact that KB has a large amount of talent, which is greater than mine and most every other human. Whether or not he is the most talented runner in the world, that, is a matter of opinion.

I'm willing to bet $1 million that if you randomly selected 1,000 15 year-old males from the world population and gave them the exact same training Bekele did from that age that none of them would ever run 12:37.[/quote]

Really!

You are missing the point here. It is not a comparison between East Africans and Americans. The question is why Bekele is better than all other East Africans.

Just as in cross country skiing if one guy dominated all other Scandinavians it might suggest they have more innate ability. Micheal Jordan's background was no really any different than many other basketball players, so why was he so much better? Bolt did not have any inherent cultural advantage over other sprinters, not did Phelps over other swimmers, etc.

If you don't think natural ability or talent is a major factor you are ignoring reality.

Bekele isn't that much better than other East Africans. First of all, we are really only talking about one event where he is truly dominant- 10,000M. Part of the reason he is dominant in that event is because so many talented East Africans don't run that event and instead do the marathon for the money. Besides that, he is very competitive and driven compared to his East African counterparts.

No. XC skiing really isn't that highly technical. Its maybe slightly more technical than riding a bike. In any case, I'm not sure it even matters. The point is, many Finns and Norwegians XC ski everyday to school when they grow up and its deeply embedded in their way of life. Its not like their Olympic champions grow up playing football, video games, and ride the bus to school, then suddenly take up cross country skiiing as a teenager and become Olympic champions.

well.. wrote:

[/quote]

There is a big difference here. XC skiing is a highly technical sport. Anyone can run, but developing world class xc ski technique takes many, many years.[/quote]

Ryan Foreman wrote:

Bekele isn't that much better than other East Africans. First of all, we are really only talking about one event where he is truly dominant- 10,000M. Part of the reason he is dominant in that event is because so many talented East Africans don't run that event and instead do the marathon for the money. Besides that, he is very competitive and driven compared to his East African counterparts.

If you don't think Bekele dominated world distance running between 2003 and 2009 you didn't follow the sport very closely.

How about 11 world XC titles? How about 5k/10k doubles in 08 and 09? Yes, he lost to El G and Lagat a few times, but he was at least as dominant in his era as other all-time greats, such as Geb or Zatopek.

And what about my other examples - like Bolt, Phelps, or Jordan? Was it just their competitive nature that made them better, or does talent play less of a role in distance running than other sports?

What about cross-country?

Being the best at something doesn't in itself mean dominant. Yes at the 10K distance he was dominant. At the 5K distance I think he has been the best but not dominant.

He holds WRs but its not like he shattered them from the previous marks.

Somebody has to be the best, why not him? I just don't get why people think this is such a great mystery.

wanna be the best wrote:

You gotta wonder, how does someone build up to cranking out 62's for a 10k, like that is just so freaking insane, how? How did train to get to such a level? I'm flabbergasted!

Started out jogging 10-12 miles a day, every day, as a kid. That's how.

a) running a lot, barefoot, since very young age

b) playing soccer as a kid (I think)

c) good natural speed

d) healthy diet (no coke for sure...)

e) perfect biomechanics

f) perfect running environment

g) altitude

h) good brother to train with

i) small stature, but trained muscels (in Geb's gym)

j) coach who knows a thing or two about world champions and records

Ryan Foreman wrote:

Being the best at something doesn't in itself mean dominant. Yes at the 10K distance he was dominant. At the 5K distance I think he has been the best but not dominant.

He holds WRs but its not like he shattered them from the previous marks.

Somebody has to be the best, why not him? I just don't get why people think this is such a great mystery.

Dominant, best, whatever. The OP's question was how did he become so good. Why him and not someone else?

My point was that Bekele grew up in the same environment as tens and thousands of other East African kids, yet he was the one that rose to the top.

I don't think his training was radically different, other runners have used the same coaches - although he was perhaps more driven than most. I'm just suggesting that what separates him and some other athletes that are the "best" at their sport is that intangible factor we often think of as "talent". If we tried to develop a regression model to predict 10k or 5k times among the top runners, a lot of the variance would be unexplained.

This doesn't just apply to Bekele. We could have the same discussion about Geb or Komen. They all have that intangible that sets them apart from other runners. What was it specifically that enabled them to run faster? If it is not really a mystery than maybe you can explain precisely what it is.

Wthl! Do you even run? Its not hard at all to regain fitness you already had in three weeks -especially if you have trained for many years. Its certainly not hard for Bekele to take 30 seconds off his 10k time within a couple of weeks when he has been running a lot faster times before he got injured.

I really don't know whether Bekele doped or not (neither do you) but your argument is a very lame one as I have already explained.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

I'm willing to bet $1 million that if you randomly selected 1,000 15 year-old males from the world population and gave them the exact same training Bekele did from that age that none of them would ever run 12:37.

Really![/quote]

So who guaranteed you that you will someone among 1,000 people who has the talent of Bekele. You may not even find Bekele's talent in billions. Please don't bring such silly arguments here. There are lots of people who have extremely rare talents in any given activity. So don't come here and tell me that just because Bekele can perform better than most athletes on the same training means that he is doped. Thats an absolutely ridiculous argument.

Hahahah I made this thread as a Junior in HS. I'm in my second year of Uni now. This is great. Thanks guys.

Have you figured it out yet?

wanna be the best wrote:

You gotta wonder, how does someone build up to cranking out 62's for a 10k, like that is just so freaking insane, how? How did train to get to such a level? I'm flabbergasted!