To wonder what Black athletes have....

[CrispyCod]

......that make them so superior in performance. It has to be genetic. I am in awe of them as they appear to glide effortlessly around the track. The Jamaican athletes are just wow! Their speed is just amazing.

Big nostrils....what a gobshite to mention this as a reason for good running performance...seriously.

Oh no no. The iq thing is racist, eugenicist propaganda. Not feeling very comfortable with how this thread going.

Neanderthal had big nostrils, but don't appear to have been build for speed.
Even without having to outrun dinosaurs.

The only surprise is that anyone is surprised how this thread has gone.

Ignorance is not an excuse for racism imo.

sancerreity
You mean the same flawed culturally specific IQ tests that found women were not as intelligent as men ... err until recently when females actually started to do better on the tests than males possibly because they are now exposed to the same educational and social opportunities.

One thing they have found linked to IQ is living in an urban environment possibly because you have to process more information at any one time. However, my urban IQ didn't help me spot the bloody great snake hanging out of the tree in Northern Brazil that the 5 year old local girl carefully pointed out before I walked into it.

IQ is a good measure of your ability to take IQ tests I am not sure what else it really shows.

Lame. Typical

apologies to moominsarescary

All an IQ test proves is that you can do an IQ test.

And they are hardly impartial. They are designed by people who have decided that they are intelliegent and so they set tests basically for them, that they can do. And anyone who can also do them is therefore Intelligent. Because they are. the whole concept is totally flawed, imo.

And that's before you even get into any race or gender bias or any agenda to prove gender or racial superiority!

Michael Phelps is a Wolverine, too as I am. My alma mater. Spend many years as a post-graduate there. A so-called elite university and one of the Top 20 unis in the world, with a renowned social science institute and one of THE best medical, kinesiology, and sports science departments.
And this is not to mention African-American and Comparative Black studies departments etc.

The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor: www.umich.edu

Anyone wanting to know the answers, feel free to look it up for yourself. Quite a few here have given great answers...and I am now off enjoying my Sunday off

Actually reading back, what I suggested isn't at all "hilarious" compared to the "nostril" bullshit some people are coming out with. That's borderline racism as far as I'm concerned.

I think it was a joke, nursebernard ...

No it wasn't a joke, it's a theory that was actually discussed when I was a student. I can't remember the full details, but I remember have a class based discussion on this.

Not read the whole thread, but am genuinely at the slavery theory. Oh my God!

I always thought it was because they had a denser muscle mass or something to that effect - also the reason why they don't make as good swimmers as the denseness doesn't help buoyancy?

I really need to look at history more....

I feel ashamed...

Ahem

Ha, ha ha @LeBof .

CrispyCod I'm sorry, but I forgot to actually answer your question.

No, I think you are NOT being unreasonable to wonder....

It is wonderful to wonder

I love the spoof Daily Mail headline on that link BOF 'outrage at immigrant black man wears union jack'

I like this one

www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152014657450305&set=p.10152014657450305&type=1&theater

Good, innit?

Various posters are surprised by the ignorance on this thread. Maybe the reason why there is so much ignorance around human variation in things like nose shape, muscles, lung capacity and so on is because any time anybody attempts to explain it, people who know pretty much nothing about biology attempt to turn it into an argument about society instead.

That is more to do with ego than any real concern with racism.

but it is a societal thing. every race has a selection of body types. there is no racial monolith (she says unscientifically). the american swimmer cullen someone says that his father liked his swimming but kept asking when he was going to join the basketball team at college. he is a tall black man, therefore it is 'compulsory' to follow a certain path and not another.

There is no such thing as race. But there are human variations that are linked to region of ancestral origin.

LeBOF that Daily Mail spoof made me cry with laughter.

As the mum of two British Muslim sons it really matters to me that my sons have positive role models and Mo Farrah is a great one.