Jorge, you're not a hater, are you? I think Asians don't do as well in sprints and things of that nature. I think they can compete in certain aspects. The US does well in the summer games because they have the most diverse population. China's population is alot more homogenous.
About as homogeneous as Russia (2nd), Australia (4th -- 1 less medal than China), and Germany (5th -- 2 less medals than China). oops guess that didn't work either. Look, I'm not a "hater", I just speak up when fallacies are posted and not supported.
What are you trying to say about asian folks on driving on the streets? I see where this thread is going. I don't want it to go that way either.
I dunno...I seem to ALWAYS outrun those gnomes that hang out in people's yards...and I'm one of the slowest land mammals on the continent.
Most of USA's gold medals are won through track field matches, this category produces an obsence amount of medals. American blacks have done very well in this field out of their explosiveness. Not surprisingly it's also a category China basically won only one gold medal as far as I remember. If it's not for the gold medals America won in track and field, China would be the No.1 or 2 in gold medals IMO. Another sport that produces a lot of, and I mean a lot of, medals is swimming, which is not the Chinese' strong suit since stamina and explosiveness are valued much more than body coordination in swimming. On the other hand, China excels at at categories that requires high level of coordination. Shooting, diving and gymnastics to name a few. China dominates the scene of "small ball" such as ping pong and badminton. China doesn't do well in sports that requires other attributes apart from body coordination to excel in, such as soccer and basketball. Of course there's also a lot of other reasons such as the very short professionalized period for these sports. Well, live examples of the high level of body coordination are Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi. Finally, come to China or get some tapes on acrobatics, I literally drop my jaw watching the Chinese acrobats do the hardest feats which I didn't see anywhere else on Earth. Not to mention Bruce Lee and Jacky Chan. I'm not trying to present a fallacy or argue here, just my impression, take it for what it's worth.
I forgot to add, yes I've driven in the Houston streets. Apart from those slow a$$ asian drivers, the younger Asians drive pretty good, if zig-zagging and street racing is of any indication on their driving skills. I've had my part of fun on I-45 as well. Not that it's glorious to talk about.
You have to understand that most of the asians are immigrants who learn to drive after they came over to this country (driving and owning a car is considered to be a luxury in most of the asian countries). While we started driving at 16, they might be learning to drive at 45 years old. At the same age we have been driving for 30 years already. You can't expect them to be able to drive as proficiently as us. So I dont think it's a matter of coordination. Also, you don't learn to do something new as easy when you are 45 years old as when you are 16.
I'm also Asian. I'm 5' 10" and consider myself to be fairly athletic but I can't touch the rim. Almost, but not quite.
Actually, of all the countries in the top 5, I would have predicted that China would have placed 5th. I consider them a 3rd world country. I'm kinda shocked they placed as high as they did. If population were the only determinance of gold medals, Mexico would have done alot better. I think there are definitely genetic variations among the races, and Asians do somethings better than others. However, in terms of overall athletics, they come in a distant 3rd behind blacks and caucasians, imo.
It's a fallacy to say this and that country should get the most number of medals in the summer games bacause of it's population. Sports is not as popular in Asia as it is here. In US almost every guy in High School play some sports while the highschoolers in Asia are often encouraged to hit the books because of the more competitive education system there. It's not uncommon for a high schooler in Asia to have his/her life revolves between going to school, studying, sleeping and eating only. You won't believe how difficult and competitive it is to go to college in places like Malaysia, Singapore, China etc. You have to be the elite ones in order to be accepted. Compare "the number of people per university" in those asian countries with that in US here and you will know what i am talking about. In additon, for the poor people, like those in the rural areas, in Asia (unfortunately they may be the majority in some poorer countries). You dont tell them to play sports in order to compete for a medal in the Olympics. Their major concern is to get enough foods to live.
Somebody said I had ups the last time there was a bbs basketball game. I am willing to prove it again.
Somebody said I had ups the last time there was a bbs basketball game. I am willing to prove it again. Kam, I guess that puts the Asian guys can't jump theory to rest. See what I mean? It doesn't matter what race you are, if you play/practice enough, and have adequate height, you're gonna be a star! It looked to me like a couple of the guys on Chinese team obviously had NBA-level hops and shooting ability; they just weren't on as high level from a skill perspective. In 12 to 16 years, you'll see the NBA with probably 50% of its players from other nations. As far as white guys with hops, have you seen this Bostjan Nachbar dude that the Rockets drafted? He's 6'9" and can do reverse jams! Some say he's at the level with the best finishers in basketball already.
I know 6'1" guys in high school that did 360 dunks. Of course, they could barely dunk in the game though.
You know those Canadians must have amazing sweeping, ice walking, shuffleboad genes to do so well at curling. And bowling. There must be something about beer drinking, cheeseburgers and living away from big cities helps people evolve (genetically passed down to their children I guess) into great bowlers.
Desert Scar is scientifically correct. The Canadians have much bigger "slow twitch" muscles than do Americans; hence, their prowess on the ice. I was in London this summer and noticed that their is an abundance of fat and drunk Brits that completely kick ass in darts. Could this be because they have "fast twitch" wrist muscles. Or have their metacarpals simply evolved over the eons into the perfect bones to whirl a 4" dart at a bullseye? Someone really needs to study this phenomenon.
I know Americans of all shapes and sizes who are good at darts. I think darts is one of those sports that relies more on hand-ee coordination rather than the make-up of fast/slow twitch muscle fibers.
