[adharmad]

Something about the East African runners is just built differently to excel in endurance running. Probably a combination of genetics and training.

[defrost]

  if you can’t beat the Kenyans then join them

  Zane Robertson famously moving from Hamilton in 2007 at age 17, along with his twin brother Jake, in part to escape bullying and a broken family, to live and train in Kenya with the hope of mixing it among the best distance runners in the world.

. . . and dabble in a bit of doping - https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/athletics/2023/03/26/zane-r...

[aithrowawaycomm]

A lot of these runners come from ethnic groups which live in highlands and mountains: extensive aerobic training in lower-O2 environments, then competing at standard elevations, seems to be the most important advantage: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225064362_Kenyan_an...

There is probably a minor genetic component, microevolution promoting higher hemoglobin/etc than average, similarly to many Tibetans. But childhood conditioning seems to be a more powerful effect.

[riffraff]

I'd wager there's probably a social factor too: if for any reason a given population is slightly better at X then X becomes more popular which leads to more support, more practitioners and in turn this becomes self-reinforcing.

[k1kingy]

Rugby in New Zealand is a good example of this. Our small country with a small population is (and basically always has been) one of the top teams in the world.

Not only at the elite level, but our junior teams and even school teams perform well on the world stage.

Like you say, that social factor plays a huge part in it. Support, funding, etc etc

[11235813213455]

99.9% lifestyle & environment & education, 0.1% genetics, like for intelligence

[Graziano_M]

intelligence is something like 60-80% heritable