Researchers theorize why Jamaicans Run So Fast
For years many people across the world have wondered how an island the size of Jamaica has managed to produce some of the world’s best sprinters.
Some researchers now believe the secret to Jamaica’s sprinting prowess may all boil down to symmetry, knee symmetry that is.
Robert Trivers an evolutionary biologist and professor of anthropology at Rutgers University along with some of his colleagues set out to discover if there was a correlation between the symmetry of the knees and how fast a person runs.
Among all sprinters,(particularly 100-meter sprinters) those with the most symmetrical knees boast the fastest times.
Symmetry is apparently a major factor in how fast we can run.
“You can easily imagine why,” Trivers says. “If you watch someone running a 100-meter race, you can see his or her knees continually churning up and down, propelling the sprinter forward. Symmetry is very efficient.”
Trivers and his co-authors – Bernhard Fink of the University of Gottingen in Germany; Kristofor McCarty and Mark Russell of Northumbria University in England; Brian Palaestis of Wagner College in Staten Island, New York; and Bruce James of the MVP Track and Field Club in Kingston, Jamaica — have published their work in the journal PLOS ONE.
For their study, the researchers measured the knees of 74 elite Jamaican sprinters and a control group of 116 non-sprinting Jamaicans of the same age and sex and similar in size and weight. They discovered that the sprinters’ knees were much more symmetrical than the knees of people in the control group.
The 74 sprinters were all members of the MVP Track and Field Club, and included Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce, who holds two Olympic gold medals in the 100-meter sprint, and Nesta Carter, the man with the fifth fastest 100-meter runs ever recorded.
The 30 sprinters who specialized in the 100-meter race, which does not require turns, had the most symmetrical knees of all. Trivers attributes this finding to the fact that sprinters in longer races have to make left turns each time they run, and this turning may lead to or favor asymmetry over time, just as unbalanced wheels may lead to uneven tire wear on a car.
“So far as we know, this is the first time anyone has isolated a variable that predicts sprinting speed in the future as well as among the very best adult sprinters now,” Trivers says.
Source: Rutgers
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So now the race is finding those kids and training them…….just so you know Asia has been doing this for years.lol…….looking for kids with certain features and training them for the olympics…
Simple answer: We have organized competition from kindergarten to old age. Practice becomes perfect!!!!!!!!!!!
We’re simply good at tracks good programmes, the best coaches, the best track meets and dedicated athletes
We Jamaicans are just simply Blessed, very talented and dedicated.
those are no simple answers… this is my simple answer
yam
a lie dem a tell. nutten noh go so. A yam an banana, dasheen, coco, breadfruit, mango, ackee, apple, jackfruit an mama and granny cooking do it and we have no problems. dem soon start seh a drugs we tek. mek dem guh weh. country pickney can run because wen me did a grow we use to run fi ketch di one bus. a CC me use to go so clarendon people can tell unu an unu know how cc use to mash up bwoys champs and vere use to mash up girls champs. a dat me tell mi pickney… Read more »
What if this symmetrical difference happens after the athlete start these training regimens. More studies definitely needed.
Not a knee mi caan believe Bruce James buy into dat foolishness look wi run from Basic Schools, Prep , Primary, Junior High, High , now Colleges inna de mix, from 1948 we a win wen wi not even did have wi own flag and anthem, 1952 wi mash up de relay inna Hellsinki, de quartet of Wint, McKinley, Rhoden Laing In the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Jamaican heroes Arthur Wint and Herb Mckenley were back along with George Rhoden and Leslie Laing. Together these four made up the gold medal winning 4×400 m relay team becoming the only team other… Read more »
Leave us alone! We not Pappy show. We all faster than unuh. DEAL WID IT!!!!!
The west can’t stand that Jamaica beats them all of the time; now they must study their “secrets”. How about the fact that Jamaicans want it more, refuse to use steroids and just enjoy what they do.
Non Sense..Bag of garbage…dose this only apply to I am a Jamaican athletes
Totally blessed.
There once was a man named Shockley who theorized that Blacks could not run long distances because of the way their feet was constructed. Then cme a barefooted man from Ethiopia named abebe who won the Olympic Marathon.
There once was a man named Shockley who theorized that Blacks could not run long distances because of the way their feet was constructed. Then cme a barefooted man from Ethiopia named abebe who won the Olympic Marathon.
There once was a man named Shockley who theorized that Blacks could not run long distances because of the way their feet was constructed. Then cme a barefooted man from Ethiopia named abebe who won the Olympic Marathon.
Bollocks it’s YAM!!!
Bollocks it’s YAM!!!
Maybe the Athlete are also inspired by Marcus Garvey,”Man without confidence is twice defeated in the race of Life,But with confidence you have won the race,even before it start.
The reason why Jamaicans run so fast is because when we were little we had to always run from our parents spanking,lol
We are the best and will always be the best their is a saying small ox cut down big tree.
wtf is micheal manley doing there he was the begenning of destruction after independense
First it was yams now it’s knees…hey I have a theory…how about hard work and perseverance. There I said it and I didn’t even need millions of dollars to study that! Geez