The recent publication of David Epstein’s The Sports Gene provides reason to look again at the distribution of running-event medals in the just completed 2013 World Championships. It's long been noted that West African-heritage runners dominate the sprints, and East Africans the distance events. This doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for runners of European or Asian descent.

So how did it go in Moscow? The following table summarizes the results of the seven flat track races, 100 meters to 10,000 meters, men and women. We don’t include the marathon because it involves so much more than just running talent: terrain changes, hydration, fuel issues, and temperature regulation. The seven events, male and female, awarded 14 gold medals and 42 total medals.

World Championships Results, Male and Female, 100 Meters to 10,000 Meters

African Heritage USA Rest of World 14 golds 14 0 0 42 medals 35 4 3







Worth noting: European-heritage runners seem to perform best at the middle-distance races of 800 meters and 1500 meters. The four American medals came from these events: Nick Symmonds (silver, 800), Matthew Centrowitz (silver, 1500), Brenda Martinez (bronze, 800), and Jenny Simpson (silver, 1500). Two of the rest-of-the-world medals also came from these races: Johan Cronje, South Africa, bronze, 1500; and Mariya Savinova, Russia, silver, 800.

According to one "out of Africa" theory, explained in Epstein's book, Africa was the birthplace of modern humanity. Therefore, Africa should contain greater genetic diversity than any other continent. This predicts that Africa has both the world's fastest runners, and the world's slowest. There are no world championships for slow runners. We hold such global contests only to anoint the fastest, and Africa appears to have many of them, both sprinters and distance stars.

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