At every Summer Olympics, one thing is predictable: the middle and long distance races will be dominated by Kenyan athletes. The debate will continue then: what do these Kenyans have? Theories will be postulated again as to why they always win.

The most dominant theory as to why they win is: it’s in their genes, they’ve been raised at altitude and therefore “oxygen trained”, they run to and from school and therefore start training early and that’s a single way out of poverty.

There is quite a lot of literature on this topic and several scientific studies have been carried out on it. However, none of the studies have conclusively said why Kenyan athletes always win.

There is no doubt that a combination of all the factors mentioned above together with some serious training will produce good results. But which of these factors contributes most to the exceptional performance of Kenyan athletes?

Before getting into the factors, it is worth noting that the majority of Kenyan long-distance runners come from the Kalenjin community in Kenya.

As a Kenyan who has lived in the Kenyan highlands all my life, I posit that the factors are ranked as follows in decreasing order of importance. Getting out of poverty, it’s in their genes, running to and from school, growing tall.

These ratings are based on the following observations. Nandi district in Kenya is not the highest place where people live in Kenya. Kapsabet in Nandi is at an altitude of 6,499 feet, while Tamau, another town in Kenya, is at an altitude of 7,229, but very few athletes come from Timau. Also, there are many other places in the world where people live at higher altitudes than Kapsabet.

Running to and from school undoubtedly plays a role in preparing young children for an eventual career in athletics. But children in Meru, Kenya, which is on the same level as Kapsabet, also run from school every day. So running to and from school would not explain the difference between Meru and Kaspsabet in producing athletes.

There seems to be reason to believe that some ethnic groups are naturally gifted to excel at certain sports. Just look at how the Spanish and their Brazilian cousins ​​harass everyone else in football. In Kenya, the one factor that the Kalenjins, who make up the majority of Kenyan runners, do not share with the rest of the Kenyans is that they are Kalenjins. Therefore, there seems to be good reason to believe that his success is due, at least in part, but quite significantly, to his ethnicity.

There are many Kalenjins who live in the urban centers of Kenya. These Kalenjins with their genes, altitude and all hardly produce any reputable athletes. Sure, your kids aren’t rushing to and from school, but more importantly, your kids are assured of a college education and can have a job after college. The amount of training and effort put in by Kenyan runners to become the best in the world is simply phenomenal. Sure the athlete will probably have more money than the college guy eventually, but what it takes isn’t worth it to a person who has “other ways out of poverty.” In the 1960s, Kipchoge Keino could have won because he had Kalenjin genes. Today the Kalenjin genes are certainly helped by the presence of 4×4 cars and large mansions in the villages owned by athletes who would otherwise be tilling the land for $2 a day.

So the success of Kenyan runners today has more to do with psychology than physiology and more with attitude than altitude.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *