Very interesting article: Sports, Race, and Genetics

[TheOtherOne55]

The Urgency?and the Challenge?of Connecting Sports, Race, and Genetics - Ashley Fetters - The Atlantic


thought I'd shoot you guys an article that got me thinking about bodybuilding and genetics. The fact that some BBers, can pick up a weight, train for 4 years and be a genetic mutant. While OTHER BBers are born with above average genetics and make gains year in and year out and maybe 10+ years down the road equal guy #1


Here's the quote:

Ooh. The contrast between Donald Thomas and Stefan Holm, the high jumpers, probably—that really stuck with me.

Stefan Holm is this highly dedicated Swedish high jumper who had started inching up year after year after year until he was a world champion and an Olympic gold medalist. I think most people think of jumping as a thing you either have or you don't, but the degree to which he transformed himself, I didn't know was possible. He was this epitome of the "nurture" approach. He had some talent innately, just not as much you'd have thought.

And then to see him get beat by Donald Thomas in 2007, a guy who doesn't even really like the high jump, who had only been doing it for about a year, but who's just got the right genes and the right build to respond incredibly well to training. It just made me realize that there are so many different paths to the same basic physical outcome.



Just thought it would be a good discussion after so much talk about Dusty. I really respect him and think he's one hell of a BBer, but he has made gains year in and year out since winning the Border States. The guy is a trooper.

 

[ROCKHARD09]

Donald and Stefan are freaks each in their own right. Stefan has the ability to adapt change and improve but was also a junior level soccer star and let that go to become a high jumper. Hj has many variables and o believe talent is not measurable. Many very good jumpers like Donald have attempted this and failed miserably. He is special, and so is Stefan... a guy like Charles Austin comes to mind. Not tall, not a top athlete as a junior in hj but it seems that this story for black athletes goes untold.....though it exists a lot. I am an Olympian in track.... at the games the vast amount of attended and medal winners are not of African descent but nobody sees it that way lol!