Kenyan running -- it IS in the genes, say scientists

I noticed the silly article that appeared in the Daily News of Kenya which attempted to make the case that genes played little or no role in that country's running success.

How absurd, and how silly to suggest that 'critics ripped' my book, 'Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It.' Or, read the cover story of the September Scientific American, 'Muscles and Genes' by Bengt Saltin, head of the Copenhagen Muscle Research Institute and a consultant on my book.

Genes are decisive in running, particularly in the sprints and longer endurance races (the evidence in the middle distances is muddier).

Also check out an upcoming article in The Wall Street Journal on the Boston Marathon which features my book Taboo.

Anyone who reads the over 100 reviews on Taboo, particularly the glowing ones in top science and genetics and anthropology journals, wouldn't dare say that genes plays little or no critical role in athletic success.

Also, statements that (1) Kenyans train 'harder' than other distance runners comes from someone who has never been to Kenya or studied Kenyan running patterns (they are as varied as in any country...some train very little, others 40 miles a week, others over 100). I suggest they read Taboo, with accounts of a range of Kenyan running patterns, few of which fit the romantic stereotypes; and (2) Kenyans are great runners because it reflects their national passion for running knows little about Kenya.

What follows below is the beginning of an article I wrote on Kenya and the role of cultural and genetics on athletic success for Salon.com that appeared last September. You can access it and more than a hundred other articles about Taboo at my website at http://www.jonentine.com:

Salon.com article at: http://www.salon.com/news/sports/olympics/2000/09/23/ race/index.html

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Olympic colors

It's obvious that blacks dominate certain sports while whites dominate others. Why can't we talk openly about the genetics of athletic excellence?

- - - - - - - - - - - - By Jon Entine

Sept. 23, 2000 It's Kenya's national sport, the passion of the masses. Little boys dream that one day, they might soak up the cheers of the adoring fans that regularly crowd the stands at the National Stadium in Nairobi. The best players are national icons. The selection process to spot the great stars begins at a very young age. Coaches backed by federal outlays comb the countryside to find the next generation of potential athletes. The most promising of the lot are sent to special schools and provided extra coaching. It's not an exaggeration to call Kenya's national sport a kind of national religion.

According to conventional and socially acceptable wisdom, this is a familiar

You are still skirting around the issue - are you saying that the same gene that is responsible for skin colour is also responsible for athletic ability? ...or is it a different gene (or genes) which have nothing to do with skin colour?

Of course it's not the same genes or genes, and if it were, it wouldn't matter. The differences are in the sequence of genes and in the proteins, and sometimes even more than that

OK Jon, let's see. When your 'book' came out, I wasn't willing to go anywhere near it, but since your telling me about all the 'glowing' praise in scientific journals, I decided to take a look. I particularly liked this one from the outstanding science publication *Nature*:

'The most irritating aspect of Taboo is Entine's constant dismissal of

I see, so 'Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It.' is just a provocative title and doesn't actually reflect your opinions or the content of the book? I guess something like 'The Effects of Genetics and Environment on Athletic Perfomance' isn't quite so snappy or headline grabbing.

Regards, Barry Running & Stuff: http://homepages.go.com/~barry841 Use your spare CPU-cycles to help research cancer treatments. Check http://www.ud.com for more information...

Poor old Lyndon, spouting off about that which he hasn't read. I'm glad your willing to take one section of one review out of about 100 reviews and make a decision about something. That's the essence of a flexible open mind. Can you find some negative comments in some reviews...certainly, but 20 percent of the population doesn't believe the Holocaust happened, so there are nuts everywhere. The fact that you and some others believe them, without trying to find out first hand yourself, is scary.

Talk about pseudo-science.... No where in my book do I criticize either Lewontin or Cavalli-Sforza

Here's some background for those trying to understand the bio-cultural reasons for Kenyan/Kalenjin dominance at Boston.

For the empiricist in you, the last 10 Boston Marathons have been won by a Kenyan. More specifically, all the winners have been Kalenjins, a loosely-named group of approximately 1.5 million people. The chances of that happening by chance, based on population statistics alone, is 1 in 1,048,576,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 . Or, as a decimal: 0.000000000000000000000000000000000001

For those who say it's because of social channeling, it's intriguing to note that running is a poor third sport in popularity Kenya, well-behind the national obsession of soccer (which they are not very competitive at compared to athletes from West Africa

So the editors of 'Nature'

-snip They're not nuts, but Nature does get a better reputation than it deserves.

So, again, the title of the book was just provocotive and sensationalist and does not reflect the actual contents? I guess that's why they say 'don't judge a book by it's cover'.

What about the title offends you... Blacks are over-represented in most sports in which they have access and are generally perceived to 'dominate sports.' We are afraid to talk about it because of the many racist notions attached to the concept, which I discuss at great length. That amounts to a Taboo. Short of printing the entire book on the cover, it was a rather brilliant title, if I must say so myself. Yes, it was provocative, as is the