Why Are Kenyans And Ethiopians So Much Faster Than Americans

While advantageous genetics may be partially responsible for East African dominance of distance running, the culture in which their aspiring athletes are raised also lends itself towards high success rates. For example, 10 Olympic gold medals, 34 World Championship gold medals, and 15 world records have come from runners raised in Bekoji, a small town of about 16,000 in Ethiopia 8. Much of this particular town’s success can be attributed to Sentayehu Eshetu, a very successful coach who has been shaping runners’ lives for over 30 years 8. Ever since Derartu Tulu (coached by Eshetu) won gold in the 1992 Olympic 10k, runners have been flocking to Bekoji in hopes of attaining the same level of accomplishment as many of his athletes have. Athletes

The United States is one of the only countries that has produced runners capable of competing with the East-Africans. Galen Rupp won an Olympic silver medal in the 10,000m at Rio, Matthew Centrowitz won gold in the 1500m–also at Rio– and Shalane Flanagan recently won the 2017 New York City marathon. However, these individuals are few and far between. In nearly every race of at least 800m not only are the winners of African origin, the vast majority of the field is. According to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, only 21.6 percent of children aged six to nineteen participate in over an hour of moderate-vigorous activity five days per week9. In contrast, most Kenyan children participate in over two hours of said activity daily. This causes Kenyans to have a higher VO2max than Americans as previously discussed. That coupled with Americans ingestion of highly processed food causes them to not be able to compete aerobically with East-Africans. Further, Kenyan many children view star distance runners the way that we view NBA and NFL stars. They see it as a way to escape the poverty cycle and provide for their family. This causes them to be stronger runners because their life literally depends on