Open Access Austin Emergency Medicine Research Article The Ecological Model of Sprinting Determinants of Jamaican Athletes Irving R1* and Bourne P2 1Department of Basic Medical Sciences, University of the Abstract West Indies, Jamaica Introduction: Studies have found that athletes from certain regions enjoy 2Socio-Medical Research Institute, Jamaica unparalleled success on track and field events and usually dominate the *Corresponding author: Rachael Irving, Department sprint events at the Olympics and World Championship Games. Historically, of Basic Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, Jamaican men athletes dating back to 1952 have held world records in the Jamaica 100m and 200m sprints and the 4x100m, 4x200m and 4x400m relays. In spite of the prowess of Jamaican athletes in the sprinting events at the Olympics or Received: November 25, 2015; Accepted: December World Championship Games, a study has never been conducted on using the 08, 2015; Published: January 12, 2016 ecological model to examine these athletes. Objectives: The aim of the study is to show how an established ecological track and field model can impact the performance of athletes. The ecological model was used to identify environmental determinants and influences that interacted to affect participation of athletes from Jamaica at the Olympics and/or World Championships Games (elite games). Materials and Methods: The original number of athletes who initially participated was 120 but was collapsed to 63 because of incomplete information from some of the athletes. All the athletes had represented Jamaica at international games including the Olympic and World Championships Games (elite games), the Commonwealth Games, the Pan American Games, Junior World Championships, World Youth Championships and the CARIFTA Games. The athletes were divided into three groups based on athletic disciplines: sprint (s: 100-400m, n=40), jump and throw (j/t: jump and throw, n=13), and middle distance (md: 800-3000 m, n=10). Although Jamaica is not usually successful internationally in middle distance events (800-3000m), these athletes were included in the study to investigate the possibility of disproportionate number of athletes originating from a particular geographical area being the result of an abundant prominence of athletics in that area. The groups were further sub-divided into those who represented Jamaica at the Olympic Games and the World Championships (elite games) and those who represented Jamaica at other international games such as Pan-American, Commonwealth, World Junior Championships, World Youth Olympics, World University Games and the CARIFTA Games (sub-elite games ). Each participant was given a questionnaire. The questionnaire used was written in English and modeled off studies done on world class athletes from Kenya and Ethiopia. Questions were simple and were explained to those who could not easily understand. The questions were designed to obtain the following information. Determinants were: domicile characteristics of the sexual partners of the athlete’s parents, locality of athlete’s grandparents, intra island migration pattern of athlete, school which the athlete attended and county in Jamaica where an athlete lived. Important influences were: place of birth, age and athletic discipline. In the track and field ecology model, county or place of birth in Jamaica influenced whether an athlete was selected to participate in elite games. Place or county where an athlete resides determined whether an athlete was likely to medal in the elite games. The data were entered, stored and retrieved using the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences, Version 22 for Windows. The level of significance that is used to determine statistical significance is less than 5% (0.05) at the 2-tailed level of significance. Cross tabulations were used to indicate statistical associations and binary regression was used to check for influence of independent variables on a dependent variable. Findings: Of the sampled respondents (n=63), 49.2% were males, 96.8% spoke English and 95.2% were born in Jamaica, 39.7% were born in Middlesex,71.4% and 12.7% of those who represented the country lived in Surrey and overseas respectively, 39.7% participated in the short sprints (100m and/or 200m), and 23.8 % participated in the 400m. Austin Emerg Med - Volume 2 Issue 1 - 2016 Citation: Irving R and Bourne P. The Ecological Model of Sprinting Determinants of Jamaican Athletes. Austin ISSN : 2473-0653 | www.austinpublishinggroup.com Emerg Med. 2016; 2(1): 1009. Irving et al. © All rights are reserved Irving R Austin Publishing Group Those participating in the sprints (100-400m) accounted for 63.5% of participants. Of the sampled population only 26.9 % went to the elite games (Olympics and or World Championships) with the remainder (73.1%) participating in the other games. Athletes who were born in Middlesex with reference to Cornwall were 0.95 time less (OR=0.05, 95% CI: 0.002-1.14) likely to participate in the elite games. This means that athletes who were born in Cornwall in reference to those born in Middlesex were more likely to participate in the Olympics or World Championships, with no difference emerging between those born in Cornwall and Surrey. Conclusion: The ecological model of track and field for Jamaicans showed that residency in urban areas increases the chance of gaining a medal in the Olympics or World Championships and those athletes usually move to the urbanized county to increase the chance of selection to these elite games. Keywords: Determinants; Ecological model; Jamaican athletes; Medical sociology; Olympics; Track and field Abbreviations has been linked to increased participation in certain athletic events [8]. Environment determinants, however, enhance greatly the chance MM: Mother’s Mother; MF: Mother’s Father; FM: Father’s of success at the elite level as illustrated by the Ethiopian and Kenyan Mother; FF: Father’s Father runners from particularly mountainous regions in those countries Introduction [9,10]. Intervention in athletic through environmental setting has being going on in Jamaican high schools for more than 100 years Ecological models that take into consideration environmental [5]. The issue of the physical performance of athletes is a bio-medical synergies can be used to elucidate factors that impact physical matter and the inclusion of social determinants (i.e., ecological model performance [1]. An ecological model can provide a set of theoretical of sprinting determinants) make the matter medical sociology. principles that aid in understanding the interconnectivity among a wide range of personal and environmental factors. From an For centuries, Jamaican sporting administrators including coaches ecological perspective, the potential for performance modification have been utilizing a track and field model to select likely prospective within groups such as athletes in a population can be considered athletes at the junior level to become senior participants. Initially, within the contexts of friends, family and neighborhood [2]. the matter athletic performance was not viewed from a bio-medical Ecological models can be robust in physical activity because of perspective in Jamaica; but with the prowess of Usain Bolt, Veronica the several physical activity multi-level prototypes that include Campbell-Brown, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Asafa Powell among individual, social and environmental variables. Because performance others, the matter of the physical performance of athletes (i.e., track or activity is enhanced in specific settings, studies have established and field model) is now widely studied from a bio-medical vantage statistical relationship between physical activity and a wide range point. Because of an understanding of this track and field model, of environmental variables to include socio-physical settings [3]. certain schools in Jamaica have had an over representation of athletes A school based setting in particular consisting of individual and who have gone on to win numerous elite games medals. The Jamaican environment components can improve physical fitness [4], increase ecological model for selection to national teams has shown that the likelihood of participation at the elite level and winning of a school based intervention through emersion in the athletic setting in medal in competition. In the physical activity constructs in Jamaica, a a particular school in a particular region of Jamaica is an important talented student is identified is transferred to a school with a history factor in the grooming of an athlete to represent Jamaica at the of students who have represented the country at the regional and regional level (sub-elite games). Other factors however are important if the athlete wishes to transcend to the elite level. Mentoring is very national levels. The transferred student is thus placed with a cohort of important but mentoring commonly takes place at traditional schools students performing at or above the transferee’s level. Equipment for in areas known to produce Olympic and World Champions [5]. In training and resources become readily available and the transferred Jamaica as soon as a young talent shows athletic potential an older student athlete is likely to be selected as a national representative [5]. retired athlete is likely to move the young athlete into his or her home The band for athletic selection is thus narrowed to basically contain and to the school the retired athletes previously attended. The athlete