Why are Jamaicans good at running?

You can do it. Were you born with it? Do these geniuses, such as Phelps, Bolt Liu Xiang and Isinbayeva, who are famous in the Olympic Games, bring their own super sports genes? Is genius born? Solve the mystery of sports genes of Olympic stars. If you have these talented sports genes, maybe you can also take part in the Olympic Games.

Gene line! You can do it!

What is talent? Talent should be an innate ability, which is endowed by specific genes. "From a genetic point of view, the inheritance of human genes is unbalanced. It is this imbalance that genetically affects the different talents displayed by human beings. " You Qi Min, Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Pennsylvania, said. Under the same training quality, those athletes with innate genetic advantages can achieve better results.

Why is Jamaica's sprint enduring?

On the evening of August 16, Jamaican Bolt's performance in the men's 100 meters in the Bird's Nest can be described as "horror". The next day, Jamaican female athletes swept the top three in the women's 100 meters. Jamaicans have made the American team, which has always been proud of sprint events, an honest audience.

In this Olympic Games, the Jamaican track and field team sent 52 people, of whom 4 1 will take part in the sprint. In the history of the Olympic Games, they won 44 medals, most of which came from individual and relay sprint events. At the Athens Olympic Games four years ago, Jamaica won two gold medals, 1 silver and 2 bronze * * *, ranking seventh in the medal list of track and field events, among which Campbell won the women's100m and 200m gold medals.

In 2008, the Jamaican track and field team became stronger. Among them, 265,438+0-year-old Bolt not only broke the world record of 100 meter sprint, but also won 9 championships in this year's 65,438+00 race. The only defeat was in Stockholm on July 22nd, narrowly won by compatriot Powell, the former world record holder, with a slight advantage of 0.0 1 sec.

Jamaica's sprint performance is related to their traditions. Many Jamaican athletes are training in China. Jamaica National Sports Center is outdated in appearance. There are some independent seats in the stands on the west side of the podium, and the rest are wooden chairs. The platform is made of concrete. However, Jamaican people are not ambiguous in the choice of track materials-the synthetic surfaces used in the competition are all paved with world-class products, and even the training ground is paved, which shows that Jamaica attaches importance to sprinters.

But scientists' research also shows that Jamaican athletes may be born sprinters. Scientists from the University of Glasgow and the University of the West Indies have studied more than 200 Jamaican athletes and found that 70% of them have a substance called Actinen, which can improve the muscle fibers related to instantaneous speed, and these muscle fibers can make athletes run faster.

On the contrary, only 30% of Australian track and field athletes contain Actinen. "The advantage of Jamaican sprint is not a flash in the pan. There are many Powell or Campbell there, which is determined by genes. " Researcher Morrison said, "Obviously, there are still many people there who have such potential."

The Mystery of Ethiopian Good at Long-distance Running

Researchers and colleagues from the International Center for East African Long-distance Running Science of Glasgow University recently announced that they have discovered a special set of genes, which led to the emergence of excellent long-distance runners in Ethiopia.

In today's world long-distance running events, the status of Ethiopian and Kenyan athletes can hardly be shaken. Of course, this is partly due to the hard training of athletes and the special local social and geographical environment. Because their families are poor, they have to run to school far away from home since childhood.

However, the research completed by scientists this time shows that genes also play an important role in the process of cultivating a large number of excellent long-distance runners in East Africa. Although some people have expressed similar views before, they have not been proved by scientific methods.

The researchers studied the genes of some Ethiopian long-distance runners and other local residents. As a result, they found that four genes on the Y chromosome of the subjects had mutations, and similar situations often appeared in some famous long-distance runners. Although no one knows what role these genes play, they are the first group of genes that have been proved to be related to Ethiopians' good at long-distance running.

The researchers explained that four genes in Ethiopian athletes have changed very obviously, and one of them has also undergone subtle differences. But there is no evidence to prove whether this genetic change exists in all athletes. Why African athletes?

In fact, not only track and field, African-American athletes have already shown superhuman talent in other sports such as football and basketball. Scientists' research shows that African nations do have something "different".

The amazing performance of African nationalities in speed events is closely related to their physiological characteristics. Muscle biopsy shows that African national athletes have a high percentage of muscle fibers, so they don't consume too much oxygen in sprint. The plantar flexor strength of African nationalities is about 150 ~ 200 kg, while that of other nationalities is only about 50kg. If the same leg force acts on the ground, the resilience of African nations is 3 ~ 4 times higher than that of other nations. Therefore, African sprinters are invincible and invincible.

Endurance exercise is related to people's cardiopulmonary function, and also related to the regulation of body temperature by neuroendocrine. African people have long lived in the high-temperature tropical area between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Cancer, which has created a strong oxygen absorption capacity and has biological advantages of heat resistance and temperature regulation. After studying the metabolism of African nationalities, scientists found that African nationalities have more sweat glands than other nationalities, and African nationalities "have faster skin freezing and better perspiration mechanism than other nationalities."

The data show that under overheating, African people return to normal body temperature faster because the percentage of copper in their blood is higher than that of Europeans. When people are exercising, their body temperature will inevitably rise. If they can't regulate their body temperature well, the internal environment will not work normally, and the destruction of electrolyte balance will also affect the normal function of the nervous system. Therefore, African people are more adapted to endurance events that easily lead to high body temperature. When it comes to the sports genes of the Olympic Games, we can't help but mention such extraordinary geniuses as Isinbayeva, Phelps, Kobe Bryant and even Ronaldinho. Few people believe that they can reach the height they can achieve only by their efforts the day after tomorrow.

The high jump queen Isinbayeva constantly sets a new world record; Phelps won the swimming gold medal; Kobe is the first superstar in NBA; Even if Ronaldinho falls, his talent is unparalleled. What do they have? Nature is an unrepeatable motor gene in blood vessels. Isinbayeva is the greatest female pole vaulter in history. She has won five important championships (Olympic Games, Indoor World Championships, Outdoor World Championships, Indoor European Championships and Outdoor European Championships), and so far she has few opponents. Isinbayeva was sent to gymnastics school by her parents when she was five years old. Eva is very talented in gymnastics, especially the flexibility of waist and abdomen and the coordination of body. Even those peers who practice jujitsu don't have such excellent qualities as her. Eva's explosive power, physical strength, flexibility, stretchability, coordination and many other specialties determine her incompetence after high jump.

Phelps is called a swimming prodigy. In this pool, there are countless geniuses in the world, such as pieter van den hoogenband, popov or Thorpe who left early. They have the same thing: tall, long legs and amazing arms. Phelps collected too many sports genes of swimming talents, that is, the underwater attack ability, height 1.87 meters, which is a balance point. His waistline is extremely long, his muscles are relaxed and powerful, and his long arm exhibition ensures that he can hit the line at the first time. Kobe Bryant and Ronaldinho, geniuses of basketball and football, need not go into details. In addition to their extraordinary talents, they have attached innate conditions that ordinary people can't imagine in their respective fields, such as muscle activity. Foreign genetic research experts made a bold prediction after investigation. If an athlete has extraordinary genes, maybe he can challenge the limit.