BMC NEWS - British Milers Club

y Sebastian Coe
In my opinion
PUTTING THE GENE GENIE BACK IN THE BOTTLE
CHANNEL 4 recently charted the sharkinfested
waters of political correctness
and emerged intact. It has often been
the graveyard of eminent scientists, Sir Roger
Bannister included, when consideration has
been given to sporting prowess and race.
Channel 4 attempted to identify genetic advantages
that might account for the dominance of
Kenyan middle and long-distance runners, since
they first emerged on the world stage at the
Mexico Olympic Games in 1968.
I found it interesting, not only because for the
bulk of my career Kenya’s finest, namely the
Kalengin people, were chasing the same spoils
as I was, but because it also left deeper
questions about the philosophy of competition.
Because in the past there has been so much
doctrinairism and on occasions deliberate
misunderstanding when there has been any
discussion of ethnic differences in whatever
field of activity they arise, Channel 4 did well to
concentrate on the science and leave the sociologists
and the rag-bag of interest groups out of
the debate.
Is there, they asked, any genetic inheritance
of specific physiological potential that can be
clearly identified and separated from socioeconomic
and environmental conditioning
These last two factors will always play a
significant part in the making of an athlete, but
they must be kept quite separate in any study
searching for a true genetic difference. In
poorer Third World countries the large sums of
money available from success on athletics’
grand prix circuit is an extremely powerful
motivator.
There are other important factors to be taken
into account. It is quite easy to misunderstand
athletics in Kenya; although it is a relatively
poor country with limited financial resources
for sport, it would be a serious mistake to think
of Kenyan athletes succeeding on physical
superiority alone. The Kenyan Federation have
created a development programme at all levels,
including the schools, which over the years has
led to some very sophisticated coaching. This is
something of which they are justifiably proud
and an area from which we might learn. If your
environment and economic circumstances leads
to a walking and running lifestyle – Kenyan
youngsters, particularly the Kalengin, run
upwards of 10 miles a day to and from school –
then it is not unnatural that you might want to
exhibit your prowess by showing how well you
can do it and in Kenya there has been a rich
supply of successful role models.
All this has to be stripped away before
assessing any actual genetic superiority, the
evidence for which might finally rest with the
exercise physiologist.
It is quite easy to
misunderstand athletics in
Kenya; although it is a
relatively poor country with
limited financial resources for
sport, it would be a serious
mistake to think of Kenyan
athletes succeeding on
physical superiority alone.
But what of genetic superiority and does it
exist Even if it were possible it would still be
a morally unacceptable, if simple experiment, to
transplant a significant test population of the
Kalengin. They would have to live and cope
with a soft Western European lifestyle away
from their traditional healthy, high-energy diet
and without marrying outside their own racial
group. We could then see if and how long an
inherited genetic advantage survived – an
advantage of enhanced aerobic capacity derived
from millennia of living and working at high
altitude.
But there are other considerations too. Like
those of overall mechanical and biological
efficiency; the biomechanical advantages
derived from different body dimensions. The
length of the leg and the relative lengths of the
upper and lower parts of the leg, the positions of
the attachments of the muscles around the joints
of their prime movers, could also be very
important. Would one gene cover it all or would
researchers be looking for additional genes
This is all very interesting, but we must ask
whether, if any ethnic group holds a significant
genetic athletic superiority, is it of any practical
significance for athletes and athletics I think
not.
In sport the athlete is always left with the
same options. Great athletes are not simply
born great. No one is born a great anything. A
baby may have a unique genetic inheritance that
could greatly favour a particular activity but that
is only a potential advantage, it does not exist as
an actual accomplishment. To turn this
potential into an actual ability will require the
application of much study and practice, be the
subject a budding athlete or musician.
In short, great athletes are not born, they are
made. They are a complex mix of genetics,
environment, an indomitable will to win, often
a sacrificial lifestyle, an excellent coach and if
they are to be long-lasting, an obsession with
consistency.
When I started in athletics I was frequently
told that I was too short to be a miler. I broke
the world record three times. Later this changed
to "I could not compete successfully against
athletes who used performance enhancing
drugs". But it must have happened. The choice
has always been the same; in reality you can
either quit in moral outrage, or find a way to
train smarter and harder. The same holds good
for competing against any group like the
Kenyans, who have been designated as superhuman.
Cold comfort to any athlete looking for a
ready-made excuse for failure.
British athletics has recently been undertaking
a performance review of the sport. When
it comes to looking at our relative decline in
middle and long-distance running, we should
not be designating supermen status to any other
athletic nation.
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BMC News : Spring 2001