How is Jamaica so dominate at sprinting despite having a small population?

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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/oct/14/jamaica-drug-testing-wada-investigation

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/athletics/entire-jamaican-anti-doping-board-resigns-amid-controversy-over-failed-drug-tests-8959186.html

https://jamaica.loopnews.com/content/ioc-denies-covering-drug-tests-jamaican-athletes-2008-olympics

Of course it's PEDs. When you are beating other PED users, it isn't hard to figure out. It is just impolite to say. I recall in 2017 when Gatlin beat Bolt, who suddenly looked very human. I always thought Bolt just did not want to pull an Armstrong and get caught on the way out.

I thought Bolt was natural because he was taller and had the most optimal sprinter body (imo). So he's probably a doper???

Hard Work, Coaches that know what they are doing, year Round Perfect training Weather for sprinting, Kids want to emulate and surpass their Heroes many of them sprinters Usain Bolt is as big a Hero in Jamaica as Nathan Hale or Thomas Jefferson are in America. not as many sports to compete with, Great Work Ethic of Jamaican People (Jamaicans are known for having fun, but they do work hard) Lots of Beautiful Women, Go to a Track Meet generally The Female sprinters are very pretty and have great bodies, even the song "On and On" starts with Down in Jamaica they have Lots of Pretty Woman, Mostly Religious with Good Morals, The people are Law Abiding and Obedient like the Japanese People, which is important as they don't lose talent to drugs or the legal system, Obedient is good because when you have great coaches you do as your told training wise and since the coaches are good you get good results.

West African genes?

Are you familiar with grammar, paragraphs, capitalization rules, and coherent thought?

Jamaica has had a strong history in sprinting long before steroids. Their top athletes aspire to be soccer players, cricketers, or runners not football players like ours.

They have a strong developmental program. The Jamaican school championships would blow you away- ten year olds passing the baton better than our Olympians (ok, no big deal), kids with beautiful sprint starts and running form, pure respect for the sport. I never had to discuss shoes or tucking in shirts with any Jamaican kid who ended up at my school, they knew.

Like many kids from other countries around the world they're not soft like us Americans who are couch potatoes at the age of 3.

No doubt drugs has infiltrated their elite program too.

With a population of 1.38 Billion to draw from, why is India so bad ?

In track a clean athlete will not beat another world class runner who is doping. The chemicals override natural ability. It is wishful thinking to think otherwise.

astro wrote:

In track a clean athlete will not beat another world class runner who is doping. The chemicals override natural ability. It is wishful thinking to think otherwise.

But you assume the runner would be world class without doping. For example, Cram could beat Aouita, even though the latter was almost certainly doping, because Aouita was not world class before he likely started doping at 23.

On the other hand, if somebody like Steve Scott had blood doped, he would likely have been running Morceli times in the 80's, and Cram would probably have been unable to beat him.

If the Jamaicans are doping, they aren’t doing anything that the Americans or Chinese or Russians aren’t doing. They may be known for a lot of things, but world class pharmaceuticals is not one of them, so whatever they’re sprinters are on is most likely available to the rest of the world, and I don’t buy into the thesis that they have stumbled upon some sort of superior protocol that no one else has been able to figure out.

So the answer may be partly doping, but it also has to do with genetics, culture and investment. Jamaicans are doing well in sprints because their people are naturally faster than most countries, they love sprinting more than most countries and they have invested in sprinting more than most countries. Talent + culture + investment = results, simple equation.

The same way Samoans are so dominant at football and rugby despite being a small population...high concentration of genetic traits favorable for success at certain sports.

It's just a fact. Take top national class runners, if one dopes and the other is clean, the clean athlete has no chance. Speculate about who is world class naturally or not all you want, but from the pool of Olympic sprinters clean athletes have no chance. The fact is Bolt and all his teammates were/are dopers and cheaters and frauds, and we know that because they beat athletes that were almost as dirty.

Yes and the East Germans did it with clean living. LOLLLLL. The delusions run so deep.

Slavery. Same reason USA does well at sprinting. Strongest ‘specimens’ in West Africa were chosen by the slave traders. So the gene pool is good.

hi wrote:

Slavery. Same reason USA does well at sprinting. Strongest ‘specimens’ in West Africa were chosen by the slave traders. So the gene pool is good.

This only makes sense to a point… if it is only genetics then West Africa should be better than Jamaica… people in West Africa have been enslaved long before the slaves they sold off the the Americas and long after the Americas quit having slaves. It would stand to reason that West Africa should be better than Jamaica at the sprints because they have a much larger population to chose from that is has a a large group of arguably more “survival of the fittest” type “specimens” as you say.

Jamaicans are almost entirely decended from slaves (I.e. unfortunate West Africans selected as strong and strong enough to survive the trans Atlantic crossing).

Slavery existed in West Africa (and much of the world) before, but it was more of a 'my tribe comquered yours' winner takes all slavery. Few West Africans are descended almost entirely from hand picked slaves as Jamaicans are.

Not saying the argument is valid in the first place, just pointing out Jamaican ancestry is very different in terms of 'slave ancestry'.

Presumably the Italian 100m gold winner is half-descended from (American) West African slaves and half from Roman slaves.

'law abiding jamaicans'?????? wow.

'im just going to the market to pick up some slaves for the sugar plantation'

'make sure you get the best, most expensive slaves...we need as many as we can get, so don get the cheapest...they are only going to work in the fields, so make sure you get into bidding wars for the best most expensive slaves....'

'dont go for any '2 for the price of one deals', remember its numbers we need, so only get the most expensive'.

Sham 69 wrote:

How is this even possible?

I don't think the Jamaican situation is unique. The Kenyan population is over 50m, but aren't most of their runners from the Kalenjin tribe (population 6m)? The USA have a lot of sprinters (almost all of them are from a small ethnic minority).

A small population with good genetics achieve some early success. This leads to youngsters trying to emulate them and a system being developed to try to maximise their potential. Young people with some talent will then try athletics rather than other sports. Probably any fast young Jamaican will give sprinting a fairly serious go, before other sports. In most other countries this would not be the case. In most other countries there are team sports which are more prestigious, have greater financial opportunities, and have more well developed clubs and/or school systems.

Plenty of large populations are atrocious at athletics:

China had some successful female distance runners and a hurdler.

India is ludicrously bad.

I can't think of any notable international athletes from Indonesia (270m), The Philippines (110m), Vietnam (100m).