In Jamaica, sprinters, rather than footballers or cricketers, are seen as superstars.
Even the annual schools’ athletics competition, ‘Champs’, is televised live and played to a packed stadium of 35,000 seats.
120 schools compete with their very best athletes in this five-day competition, and good performers become household names.
The authorities are on a constant lookout for great sprinting talent and any kid who has the potential to be a world-class sprinter is found out and turned into a track athlete.
Reason 2: Proximity and cultural ties with the US.
Some of the best athletes go to colleges in the US on sports scholarships, train and compete there, and a good number out of them return to Jamaica to train generations of new stars.
Reason 3: Genetics & aluminium-rich soil
A particular variant of the gene ACEAngiotensin-Converting Enzyme has been associated with a larger than average heart capable of pumping highly oxygenated blood to muscles quicker than the average human.
In people of west African origin, the frequency of this gene-variant is slightly higher than in people of Japanese & European origin; in Jamaica, it’s even higher than those in west Africa.
Also, 75% of all Jamaicans (whether athletes or not) have been found to have another gene ACTN3, which helps muscles generate strong, repetitive contractions (only 70% of US-athletes have this gene).
ACTN3 gene can only make a difference during the first three months of pregnancy when the number of these fast-twitchThere are two types of skeletal muscle fibers are slow-twitch (type I) and fast-twitch (type II). Slow-twitch muscle fibers support long-distance endurance activities like marathon running, while fast-twitch muscle fibers support quick, powerful movements such as sprinting or weightlifting. Source: National Academy of Sports Medicine (nasm.org) muscle-fibres is determined.
Aluminium in the environment or diet promotes the development of these muscle fibres in growing foetuses.
And a large number of Jamaica’s Olympians (including Usain Bolt) come from the region containing the rich aluminium ore deposits.
The theory on genes & aluminium soil has been said to hold little relevance, as neither Brazil nor Nigeria, which have large numbers of ethnically comparable individuals, have any real success in running competitions.
But in combination with other factors, these factors may have an impact that is yet to be proven with conclusive evidence.
