It was the summer of 1980.
Jimmy Carter was the president of the United States. Leonid Brezhnev was the president of the Soviet Union. And the Olympics held in that same Soviet Union marked a milestone: it was the last time a white guy won the 100-yard dash.
For that matter, it was the last time a white guy even competed in the finals for the 100-yard dash.
To give you some context, we’ve had eleven Summer Olympics since Scotland’s Allan Wells’ 1980 victory. Typically, in the finals of the 100m Olympic dash, eight men compete for the top positions. So that’s 88 non-white guys running in the 100m dash Olympic finals. One of those runners (in 2020) was Chinese, all the rest have African heritage.
People are different.
I think it’s safe to say some of our physiology is different – between men and women, between people of different genetic backgrounds, and between people of different parts of the world.
We perform differently when it comes to sports and other activities. We think differently. We often behave differently.
Some of it is genetics – both what we inherit from our parents and, on a larger scale, what we inherit from our ancestors. Some of it is upbringing. If our friends and our family all love basketball, or skiing, or camping, we’re probably more likely to gravitate towards those things because we’re comfortable around them. Some of it is access to things like mountains or swimming pools or running spaces.
Do we need to “fix” the problem of fewer white men competing in the 100m dash in the Olympics? I’m guessing almost no one would say yes. It’s certainly not racism or society’s fault.
Do we need to “fix” the problem of fewer minorities in Olympic swimming competitions or on hockey teams?
Suddenly, the question got a lot thornier.
— Ken
There’s no “fixing” reality, and that’s ok.
I've got a friend who moved to southern Africa to join a missions team. He told me that when worship time came, there would be folks from eight to ten hours away who had walked from home. A different culture would serve to generate more of a running mentality. I know I've never walked that far!