[QUOTE=MichaelQReilly]
I think inevitably, as others have said, people are for various reasons reluctant to admit that there is a race factor in athletic performance. But if we move away from focusing on blacks of West African descent, our politically correct tendencies go away a little bit. Look at this for last years World’s Strongest Man competition. 6 out of the 10 best are from Poland or Latvia, Baltic coat countries. If you poke around on the site, the majority of top 10 finishers from the last 10 years are from Baltic Sea countries. I think many people might agree that there is a bit of a correlation there.
[/QUOTE]
Fortunately, we all know that correlation does not always mean causation. At least we should know that.
**Tom **has it right. There is nothing inherently “bad” about the idea that some populations are going to be better at certain sports than others. I would be surprised if it were not so. But you have to define the population you are talking about, make sure that is in, indeed, a genetically distinct population, and then take some scientific measurements. That is, random, controlled experiments. Observations we make in everyday life can be strongly suggestive, but not scientifically conclusive.