you realise it is because of slavery - right? all the tallest, strongest, most muscular west africans were forcibly removed some 150 years ago. this left a gene pool composed of smaller people to produce the present generations of west fricans. in the carribean and the us however, the black population was almost exclusively descended from the biggest, strongest and fastest people that had ever lived in west africa.

money obviously is a big factor too, and until relatively recently, west african nations could hardly afford to compete in sports tournaments while the usa pours funding into training, facilities, coaching etc. the fact remains though, the us (and carribean nations) are working with a 'hand picked' (horrible to say) genetic group in the first place.

I'm afraid that reference is lost on me.

Maybe young white sprinters are ignored or have less focus put upon them or encouraged to focus on other sports because of a preconception that there is a limit to their ability because of their race, maybe coaches consciously or subconsciously see more talent in black youngsters because of a preconception that white sprinters are inferior and so they are more likely to be picked up and developed and so to progress in the sport . The same as some would argue that the larger amount of black wide receivers and running backs and disproportionate amount of white quarterbacks in the NFL isnt necessarily because those races are naturally predisposed to those positions but because black wide receivers are thought to be naturally predisposed to those positions so at youth level they are encouraged toward them at the expense of other positions.

As for the why havent any Western African people been winning medals isnt dead, its a clearly pertinent point. It is impossible to realistically attribute natural predisposed genetic talent to the fact people are of West African descent when West African people themselves dont show this same attribute.

The Undercover Economist and presenter of More or Less on Radio 4; their mantra is 'correlation does not imply causation.'

I live on the edge.

Slaves were taken from West Africa to America. The biggest and strongest slaves were bred together (and a bit of plantation owners sons DNA thrown in here and there) to make bigger and stronger slaves. Bigger, stronger offspring bred with the offspring of other bigger, stronger slaves to eventually create what we have today. Blacks in the USA who are bigger, stronger and faster than their African 'brothers'. Same can be said for blacks in the Caribbean.