The Secret of Black Sportsmen's Olympic Achievements*
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The Secret of Black Sportsmen's Olympic Achievements* By Felix Lebed, Ofer Muchtar, and Yair Galily In 1936, Jesse Owens won 100 m gold in unforgettable fashion at the Berlin Olympics to herald the rise of the African American at the highest level of international sport. In the half century since 1960, all but three gold medals over this blue riband distance have been won by athletes of African American or Afro Caribbean origin. All attempts to explai n this phenomenon by cultural and social factors (e.g. black society's desire to breach "a glass ceiling" and struggle upwards) have been countered by sports scientists who believe that black athletes have a physiological advantage. Other scholars have refuted a genet c or racial explanation of black sportsmen's superiority. Background: The Doctrines of Race versus Social Powers African-American participation in sport has a special place in the story of slavery and its consequences. David Wiggins in 1989 and Jay Coakley in 2012 both examined this issue from an historical point of view, beginning with William Montagu a Cobb's anthropologic laboratory where the proportions of Jesse Owens's body were measured in 1936 (Cobo, 1936). There are two general approaches to the problem. They are the biological approach (race doctrine) and the sociological approach (social powers doctrine), both of which seek to explain the causes of the impressive success of black sportsmen despite unequal social conditions for the black population in America. Apologists for the biological explanation of black sportsmen's superiority emphasize a number of advantages among them anthropological parameters. David Hunter drew his own general conclusions in 1998 from research which had been conducted in the years from the thirties to the eighties. African-Americans as a group have longer limbs, shorter trunks, and narrower anaerobic abilities (Ama, Lagasses & Simoneau, 1990). What is Usain Bolt's pelvic girdles'; they nave shorter sitting height and The heel bones in their feet are longer and the fat pads secret? At the Olympic other anthropological characteristics (lean body mass are thicker (Cobb, 1936). According to Malina (1988), Games of 2008 and that differs etc.). Together these give them a certain black children and adolescents are able to demonstrate 2012 the six-times advantage when moving (Saltin, 1996). better performance in sprint running, jumping, and Olympic champion Other sources relate that African-Americans have coordination connected to game playing. from Jamaica beat more fast-twitch muscle fibers (Kane, 1971, Abe, Brown Accordingto Kane (1971; quoted by Harpalany, 1998) all all comers by some & Brechue, 1999), more intensive phosphor genetic explanations of such objective conditions concentrate distance. activity in the muscles (Ama, et al., 1986), and higher on two main hypotheses: selection and breeding. Photo: pictute-alliance The socially grounded theory the advantage enjoyed by black sportsmen - is supported by Cobb's (1936) suggestion, and later, Edwards' claim that there are "more differences between individual members of any one racial group than between any two groups as a whole" (Edwards, 1971 ,p.35) . Sociological doctrine concentrates mainly around a classical distinction, which been to regard race zs a biological category and ethnicity as a cultural one (James, 1963). In recent decades scholars of racial relations have suggested that race must be problematized and not accepted as a natural identity. The range of class-based theories could explain for example why the differences between the Caribbean nations is vast, but the most prevalent approaches are materialist analyses formed by a classical Marxist, class conflict approach (Carrington, 1986). These approaches view racial conflicts and diversities as a consequence of capitalist relations of production, John Baxter Taylor Wilson and Grim (1991) demonstrate the most salient and the oppressive acts of power and control of the (second from left) the example of the selection approach (which, however, is different colonial dominant force(Birdsall,i999). first Afro-American rejected by Hoberman, 1997). They use three well-known These cultural theories would explain racial to become Olympic facts: differences as the result of c l Itural imperialism enforced champion in the relay. • The statistically- proven higher blood pressure rates through military and cultural conquest: for example, He graduated from in the African- American population than in the the colonialism and neocolonialism of the Caribbean by the University of Caucasian population; white Europeans disrupted the Caribbean’s culture and Pennsylvania, but • The “fact” (whether it is true or not) that genetically - led to the colonization of the indigenous population shortly afterwards caused high blood pressure correlates with a large within their own nation. he died from typhoid number of fast-twitch muscle fibers; With the conquest came the devaluation and pneumonia on • The fact that high blood pressure blocks the "salting- destruction of traditional cuItural forms, as well as the J'"’ December 1908. out" of body liquids. emergence of new traditions and practices introduced by the colonizing nation; this process is known as Photo: Pennsylvania Univeruty Archives Salting-out is the main cause of death of people who "Hierarchy Diffusion". Cultural domination is therefore suffer from thirst. According to the Wilson and Grim's the key dynamic in the production and maintenance of hypothesis, this was what actually mattered in the slave differences between nations in a region (Dyreson, 2005). ships. Hundreds of slaves were deprived of sufficient Additionally, "Globalization" scholars state that the water. Some died from salting-out. Those who survived development of sports in a region was an important the voyage across the Atlantic did so because they had part of the colonial policy, in which the “super genetically - caused high blood pressure. powers" of the time tried to impose their culture on the A generalized summary of the race doctrine, however, "underdeveloped" countries (Birdsall, 1999). questions what constitutes the black race from a genetic The issue of discrimination stands in an independent point of view. Reed (1969) believed that the American position in sociological studies. There are many facets of black population carried from 2 % to 5 0 % of Caucasian discrimination in sport that are emphasized in historical genes. This question has taken on more of a social and sociological research. nuance, because it is connected to purely historical- For Coakley (2012), discrimination was a dominant sociological problems of sex, violence, mixing African factor in shaping the mass factor in participation of and European religious traditions, slave-master black sportsmen in certain sports. They were looking for relationships, and soon. viable routes to socio-economic success. This influenced Felix Lebed Ph.D., graduate of the Sport University o( Ofer M uchtar Ph D., graduated the Hebrew University Ukraine, 1977. Until 1990, senior lecturer at the same University of Jerusalem, Institute of Criminology, in 2010 a lecturer at and coordinator of the scientific group supervising the Soviet Department of Criminobgy in Ashkeion College. Since 2013 he national handball team's Olympic preparations.Since 1990 lives is also the Educational hograms manager of Hapoel Beer and works in Israel. Present focus is on interdisciplinary studies Sheva F.C. of human play and competitive games. young black men as they made decisions about their Methodology Silvio Catortooo- sport specialization. For example, it is cheaper to play 1953) from Haiti, who basketball in the backyard than buy all the equipment Most studies on this issue concentrate on black was honoured on a necessary for golf. At the same time, the cultural sportsmen in America and Canada. (Wiggins, 1989; stamp in hi. home environment was also an influence. Examples of Sailes, 1998; Entine, 2003). In such studies the cultural land, won the long successful sport heroes, established in community lore factor is constant and consist of two components: jump silver medal in and reinforced by daily television broadcasts, conspired (1) the traditional British - American attitudes to sport 1928 in Amsterdam. to convince the aspiring young black sportsman that as a great value; (2) open racism in the past and latent A year later he estab baseball, basketball, football, boxing, and athletics discrimination in the present, in all their facets. But this lished a world record were the "assured" routes to success in sports. constant "North America 1" factor can vary in other geo with 7.93 m. There is, however, another side to discrimination in political regions, where black sportsmen take part in sport research. Hoberman, writing in 1997, described any high-level competitions and win. In our view, intrinsic Left: n 192:1 the discussion of the physical advantages of black athletes (North American) cultural anaylsis not the only way to American longjumper as “a great racist myth." Simons (2003), suggested study the main question about cultural causes of the William De Hart that the natural expression of sport emotions by black sporting superiority of black athletes. Hubbard (1903-1976) athletes during sporting events (which often involved When two doctrines are oppose a nd arguments became the first black aggressive and crude sexual gestures) was characterized for both are mutually damaging to other side, there is individual Olympic as "indecent