highschoolcoach said:Anybody care to venture an opinion about the lack of national-caliber white female high school sprinters and hurdlers? ÂÂ
My observations as a high school coach indentify 2 factors:
1) Self-selection out of those events by participating in another sport or a "race-appropriate" event.
2) Coaches who automatically put whites into "race-appropriate" events, never even considering that they might have the talent for sprints and hurdles.
ÂÂ
jacknyc said:highschoolcoach said:Anybody care to venture an opinion about the lack of national-caliber white female high school sprinters and hurdlers?
Myobservations as a high school coachindentify2 factors:
1) Self-selection out of those events by participating in another sport or a "race-appropriate" event.
2) Coaches who automatically put whites into "race-appropriate" events, never even considering that they might have the talent for sprints and hurdles.
Well the same can be said of the boys, and although there are not a ton of white hs boy sprinters, there are for all practical purposes, no white hs girl sprinters.
On top of all the reasons you listed, the fact that girls are more group/team orientated and less independent than boys, might be a big factor as well.
It is probably more difficult for a white girl to fit in as part of the group with the black girl sprinters than it is for a white boy to fit in with his black counterparts. And as a girl, she would feel the need to 'fit in' more than the boy would.
albinosprint said:it really depends what race your aiming for. are you going for a 100/200 or 200/400. what are your time in the 55 or 60? in the early season try to get in a few of each race (100/200/400). report back to here with times, age, weight and i could give you a good program for the events you'll be running. good luck!
I would also tend to think the Tom boy factor is huge in why very few white females take up sprinting. Females have to shape their bodies into unfeminine physiques. The last pure sprinter that was a white female that became world class was Sandra Meyers and she never represented the US(she represented Spain and won a bronze at the worlds).jacknyc said:highschoolcoach said:Anybody care to venture an opinion about the lack of national-caliber white female high school sprinters and hurdlers?
My observations as a high school coach indentify 2 factors:
1) Self-selection out of those events by participating in another sport or a "race-appropriate" event.
2) Coaches who automatically put whites into "race-appropriate" events, never even considering that they might have the talent for sprints and hurdles.
Well the same can be said of the boys, and although there are not a ton of white hs boy sprinters, there are for all practical purposes, no white hs girl sprinters.
On top of all the reasons you listed, the fact that girls are more group/team orientated and less independent than boys, might be a big factor as well.
It is probably more difficult for a white girl to fit in as part of the group with the black girl sprinters than it is for a white boy to fit in with his black counterparts. And as a girl, she would feel the need to 'fit in' more than the boy would.
As far as I know only Grace Upshaw, Ulrike Mayfar(Not sure on the spelling) and Jenny Adams have represented the US at world or Olympic meets. All were longshots for a medal. As bad as the US men have done until recently they have been by far more competitive than the women.Edited by: white is righthighschoolcoach said:Yes, Yulia Nesterenko of Belarus won the womens 100 meter dash in the 2004 Olympic Games. In addition, Anna Guevara of Mexico and Natalya Natyukh of Russia finished 2-3 in the 400 meters, and Olena Krasovska of Ukraine was 2nd in the 100 meter hurdles. White women were 1-2-3 in the 400 meter hurdles.
However, white American women were non-existent in the sprints and hurdles and have been for decades, as far as I know. The last American white female sprinter who I know of to even participate in the Olympics was Kathy hammond, who won the bronze in the 400 meter dash.
So, although few American white men are top sprinters, there are and have been some since 1972, but NO women. Why not? As stated before, I think that there is a significant psychological component to the explanation, and wonder what can be done about it.