Why do Kenyans win athletic races?

I was at the edge of my seat as I watched the Kenyan athlete Pamela Jelimo sprint past the finish line at the women’s 800m final at the Beijing Olympics this past Monday leaving the rest of her competitors with a huge margin. I screamed loudly afraid that I would wake my next door neighbors who happen to have a baby. The commentator announced that the Kenyan women had bagged both the gold and the silver medals. I was elated! Kenyan had for the first time in history had won a gold medal in the women's 800m a race that has been largely dominated by Maria Mutola of Mozambique having won the gold medalrepeatedly including at the Sydney games in 2000.

The following morning at work, as we exchanged the ritual morning niceties a colleague at work who happens to hail from one of the Caribbean islands looking wide eyed asked me “why is it that Kenyan athletes always win the long distance athletic races?”She went on to postulate – “ is it because back at home they have to walk long distances in their villages ?” Looking irritated I also shot back a similar rhetorical question and asked her if she also thought that the Jamaicans that won the short distance races won because they have to run that fast to their destinations in their country. Our conversations slowly died a natural death as we all went back to our Monday morning work related duties.

These myths and many others that have been widely distributed in the Western media continue to spread to much dismay. The most common myth is the one that states that Kenyans in the villages run to school for years growing up and hence the running predisposes them to good athletic performance in the future.This is simply untrue because some of the children live quite close to school and there is also usage of public transport and some students indeed wake up early and walk to school.

The most common argument however is the one related to the high altitude. It is claimed that Kenyans are born and raised in high altitudes thus running at these high altitudes give them better lung capacity and superior performance.Another cloesely related one also postulates that it is their body morphology focusing on theor feet. One such study by a Danish researcher even made the spurious claims mentioning that " the Africans had "birdlike legs, very long levers that are very, very thin" enabling them to "bounce and skip" over the ground, with their legs taking off after each footfall far faster than the Europeans" to justify why the kenyans won races.

What all these explanations of Kenyan athletes stellar achievements have in common is that they lack the common thread of determination that Kenyans as a people possess. Ask anyone who knows a Kenyan. Kenyans generally are a disciplined and a work ethic is incalcated in Kenyans when growing up. In the same manner the kenyan althletes train and work hard. They are secluded and live in training camps and run seeing their families for sometimes as long as three months. They work hard and as hard as any other athlete from any country and they also have a deep sense of determination and commitment

When I use to live in the same neighbourhood with Catherine Ndereba I would wake up at 6.00 am to jog,I would find that she was already up and running on the path on the way back and that was daily.

So for all those who want to explain this performance of why Kenyans run, it would be wise to rethink your arguments or forever remain silent!