You make it sound like the Africans are the only ones racing. There are plenty of Euro/Asian/American runners competing for it and probably had much better infrastructure and training counsel than their African counterparts. Yet still, the Africans dominate. By definition then, its definitely more than just 'economics' and certainly more to do genes/physique/etc.
Read "Running with the Kenyans"[1]. Euro/Asian/American runners might have nice tracks to train on, but they don't have things like training groups that include multiple Boston, NY and Berlin winners.
That book is pretty eye opening read. The running culture is like nothing else - guys who come 3rd in the world 10,000m championship are hardly worth mentioning, high school races have better fields than US or European championships etc etc.
I read into your post the idea that it's training culture and not genetics that gets so many east africans into distance running success. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Seems unlikely to me. 100m and 200m is thoroughly dominated by New World West Africans.
Mid distance 400m to 1600m is pretty well split up between Africans, Whites, and East Asians. Whites actually seem to do well at 800m.
I don't really know, but it seems there's a ton of racial genetics at play in sport.
You see in olympic/power lifting it's dominated by nordics/baltics and persians. Considering global popularity it defies ideas about training culture.
I'd never rule out the (huge) role genetics play. But the culture and environment have a role too.
You don't see many Kenyans dominating in cross country skiing or in road cycling which are both endurance sports where similar physical attributes are useful. Sports culture has a huge role.
OTOH, there have been projects to see how Kenyans do in those sports. The small Nike-supported cross country skiing project wasn't very successful[1], but the cycling project is showing some promise[2]. Genetics has a huge role.
So true... and kind of weird I didn't think to mention that!
I wonder if that counts as genetics or environment.
For those unfamiliar, the 2013 Tour De France winner Chris Froome was born in Kenya to British parents. He races under a British license and does not appear to share many genetic similarities to top Kenyan marathon runners. He's fairly tall (184cm), with significantly different facial features and skin tone.
OTOH, he has a pretty amazing ability to produce constantly high levels of power on long (30 minute+) climbs.
As someone who trains somewhat competitively for marathons in a group, I can tell you that having people of similar ability to train with has a huge impact. As does having soft surfaces to run on and good weather.
Genetics may be in play, but it isn't the only thing in play.
