NewsFeed is aware this story is fraught with potential pitfalls. But it is interesting! So we will soldier on regardless.
Talking about why some races seem to be better than others in sports is a minefield, filled with misstatements that range from childishly naive (NewsFeed had friends in grade school who swore that blacks had an extra muscle in their legs) to full-on racist (See the comments on the story we will soon discuss for examples.) Malcolm Gladwell’s 1997 article in The New Yorker “The Sports Taboo” is probably the best examination of the matter, bringing in issues of genetic variability, location, and effort — but even he resists coming to one easy conclusion, probably because there isn’t any.
But Gladwell’s larger point — that we shouldn’t be afraid of talking about racial differences in sports — still stands. And now scientists from Duke and Howard University have weighed in with an explanation for why blacks dominate sprinting and whites dominate swimming: It’s all about the location of the bellybutton.
According to Professor Andre Bejan, runners of African origins have a belly-button nearly an inch-and-a-half higher than white runners of a similar height . This means that they both have a longer stride and a higher center of gravity, which Bejan says gives them a leg-up in locomotion.
The short-legged, long-torsoed whites, meanwhile, had an advantage in the swimming pool.
“The swimmer who makes the bigger wave is the faster swimmer, and a longer torso makes a bigger wave. Europeans have a three-percent longer torso than West Africans, which gives them a 1.5-percent speed advantage in the pool,” Bejan told AFP.
Interesting food-for-thought, or shallow analysis that ignores all other cultural factors? Probably both! Still, NewsFeed awaits the next report from the professors. Could they examine whether the ‘grit‘ levels of white receivers in the NFL?