My inclination with regard to the 100 accords with you JD074. What keeps me from being 100% convinced is the history of the event. The most dominant factor in the Olympic 100 meters has been not race but the United States. I went over some of this stuff I think in response to Black Guy but in a nutshell...1936 Jesse Owens, 1948 the next Olympics owing to the war, it was a black sweep Harrison Dillard and Barney Ewell of the U.S. and LaBeach of Panama yet 12 years later it was a white sweep Armin Hary of Germany, David Sime of the U.S. and Peter Radford of Great Britain. In '64 Bob Hayes led a black sweep but 8 years earlier in '56 Bobby Morrow and Thane Baker of the U.S. were followed by Hector Hogan of Australia to complete a white sweep.
So for decades, blacks and whites competed head-to-head with sometimes the best sprinters being black and sometimes white. Then, beginning in the mid 60's blacks begin to dominate and American whites all but ceased to exist as a force in the 100 and to a lesser extent the 200 and 400( in '64 the winner was Michael Larrabee. Quite white.). And of course, no white man has gotten under 10 seconds. The strong presence of blacks on the roll of great American sprinting suggests that they may indeed possess, on average, an inherent speed advantage. Yet, I wonder how and why then whites were so long able to run with them timewise or even better them. Why is it that blacks have kept progressing and whites have stalled? Why is it that Bobby Morrow and Thane Baker could run 10.2 50(!) years ago and now it is almost impossible to find an American white that can get under 10.3 on any kind of regular basis. Or, why is it that black sprinters weren't always 2 tenths faster than whites from the get go? Why did that difference only manifest itself in the last thiry years or so? I hope others might find these questions of interest and respond. I can't believe that,even conceding a speed advantage to blacks,that there wouldn't occasionally at least(the numerical odds etc...)be whites capable of running within the same range. For myself, I think many whites are shackled by the presumption of the advantage and therefore shy away from the event. Also, I believe coaches, parents etc. exert pressures subtle and otherwise that influence decisions that keep whites away from the sprints. I think that, as with football and other team sports, sometimes people that should know better just ignore what is right in front of them. Wariner was lucky to grow up in Texas where the color-blind Clyde Hart is coaching but you can't tell me that Andrew Rock shouldn't have gotten a scholarship to a Div. 1 school. I think that talented white high school sprinters are seen as, if not flukes, then as bodies to be made into linebackers, safeties and slot receivers.
Apologies for the lengthy ramble. I'll quit now.
