Africans athletic due to ‘higher centre of gravity’
Ever wondered why world’s swiftest sprinters like Usain Bolt or Michael Johnson are all of West African ancestry? Scientists say it’s because they have “a higher centre of gravity” compared to their white peers.
Using laws of locomotion, researchers at the Duke University found that black sprinters have a 0.15 second advantage over their white rivals because they tend to have a higher centre of gravity, meaning they can fall to the ground more quickly between each stride.
Conversely, having a lower then average centre of gravity helps white swimmers because their speed is determined by the height they can get above water, they found. In a paper published in the International Journal of Design and Nature and Ecodynamics, Duke professor Adrian Bejan and co-authors Edward Jones of Cornell University and Duke graduate Jordan Charles explained that centre of gravity tends to be located higher on the body of blacks than whites.
The researchers, who looked at elite athletes over the past 100 years for their study, believe that these differences are not racial, but rather biological.
“There is a whole body of evidence showing that there are distinct differences in body types among blacks and whites,” said Jones, who specialises in adolescent obesity, nutrition and anthropometry, the study of body composition.
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