- Jun 15, 2009
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Franklin said:I think recently there certainly have been fast French and Surinam swimmers. I call nonsense on the racial differences as they have been shown to be bunk in most cases I know of.
Painting with broad strokes we have the "imported" black population and the native black population. If we look at them:
Imported:
The whole problem is probably cultural, it's simply not their favorite sport. Ball games and Athletics are swamped with them. Skating, Cycling, Hockey, etc. not so much. However, Shany Davis shows that there really is no reason they can't compete.
Native:
Swimming needs facilities and that remains an issue. Unless a governement decides to go all out and stamp a swimming culture out of the ground I doubt we will see an African swim superpower any day soon. I could be wrong (I actually hope that all sports mondialize further!)
Another big issue is the recurring domestic insecurities in a lot of Africa, which makes the focus on sports for a large part of the continent pretty haphazard. It's not a coincidence that stable Kenya is doing so well in sports.
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... and even there (in Kenya) most people i got to know can´t swim. Not even those living in Mombasa (at the ocean!!). It´s simply a money factor. If the resources were there (science, money, dope programs) the blacks would swim away from everybody, like they do in running. I´ve no doubt about that.