So, is slavery responsible for the athletic performance of African Americans?

[mathematic]

31. That's a distance race and the winners were East African.

I was kinda surprised that you said a nigerian won so I looked up the results. It was an ethiopian. Distance running is an entirely different physical activity than sprinting. I can beat world class sprinters in a 5k and I'm just some guy.

The fact that East Africans dominate in distance events and West African descendents dominate sprints is just more evidence that "race" is a bogus concept in genetics. As for the slavery hypothesis, I don't buy that. Actual West Africans are also pretty good at sprinting. Though it's not out of the realm of possibility that there was some sort of extreme selection pressure I just don't see how speed/power-based sport performance is evidence of that.

Overall, I don't get what the big deal is. It's not like people of european descent suck at sports or at running. The world record miler is morrocan. That's basically "mediterranean melting pot" genetically. Generally, northern europeans and iberians are competitive in world class distance events. Also for some reason eastern european women, but not men, are standouts in middle distance (800/1500m).