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agreed. where sis I say 'ALL'?

and more to the point - are you disputing what i am saying? i actually thought people knew this stuff... i don't know why.

West african nations are now very strong at football. they are wealthier, they can afford to compete, and the global economy means european clubs sign a lot of west african players and develop them. the french league is full of players from cameroon, senegal and cote d'ivoire... all strong footballing nations now. their players tend to be strong, fast, explosive and powerful. the combination of west african genetics, and growing uo in wetern europe (france) means they benefit from the diet and medical care of a first wold natio, and possibly their parents and granparents did too. this quickly provides tangible benefits to the level of athlete who is representing the west african nations.

the same can be said of samoans 'benefitting' from being born or raised in wealthy new zealand.

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.