Environmental Sciences, asked by advaith18mar05, 1 year ago

Reasons for the USA to top list in olympics

Answers

Answered by HAPPY1231
1
All these following things considered don't explain perfectly why America is so good at winning Gold. In fact, there are 5 countries better than America at winning gold. Proportionally, (Referencing the 2012 London Olympics, Olympic Medals per Capita). New Zealand, Great Britain, South Korea, France, and Russia were all countries with at least 10 gold medals in the 2012 Olympiad that had better Gold-Medals-Per-Capita ratios. Much of this has to do with multiple events in one sport that give tons of medals in different events (sailing, archery, swimming, shooting). These sports that give medals out left and right are just not as popular in countries that have sports that can only give them 1 or 2 medals (handball, water polo).

Slavery, Diet, and Culture have all had a profound impact on the Olympics and American gold medals. Since the end of segregation, more and more black athletes have arose as prominent olympians (i.e. Gabby Douglas and starting from Jessie Owens) and as professional athletes. The barbaric practice of slavery; especially the journey through the middle passage, instantly separated those with superior genetics (those who could survive the trip). From then on, that gene pool was further refined by the practice of selective breeding amongst slaves and slave owners. Slaves who appeared the strongest and healthiest were tied together and made to have sex (Just read the Autobiography of Frederick Douglas). That same concentrated gene pool bred more exclusively with itself because of segregation after the civil war. If any race had gone through what African-American slaves had, they too would create a group of people who's genes were tailored for the riggers of working all day and to have strongest muscles.

The American diet/culture is a big reason why we are so talented athletically. If you look at different immigrant groups (Irish, Japanese, Nigerian, etc.), it is usually the first generation that has an American diet that contributes to an athlete of olympic caliber (Jim Thorpe, Apolo Ohno, Al-Farouq Aminu respectively).

Diversity is another reason why Americans do so well. Jim Thorpe is a great example of someone who won almost more Gold Medals than anyone in history. His father was an Irish immigrant and his mother was Indian (native). Having a diverse group of people to practice, play, and breed with is crucial to athletic success. Being able to bring in all immigrant groups (like Polynesians) also contributes to Team USA's success. Some of the fastest pound for pound athletes in the world come from Tonga, Fiji, and Samoa (Haloti Ngata, 340 pounds and can run a 40 yard dash in 5.1 seconds). Based on Usain Bolt's 100m dash time, he could run a 40 yard dash in 3.97 seconds at 210 pounds. Scaled against one another, Haloti Ngata would run the 40 in 3.15 seconds. Also keep in mind as I was saying before that Haloti is a second generation Tongan immigrant.
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