World-class athletes: are they born or made?

Jermaine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer

The ongoing debate as to whether or not world-class athletes are born or made could not be resolved at the The Gleaner's Daegu to London special Editors' Forum held at its North Street offices yesterday.

The forum, which included Dr Colin Gyles, dean of the Faculty of Science and Sport at the University and Technology (UTech); Dalton Myers, director of sports at the University of the West Indies (UWI); Fitz Coleman, former coach of Usain Bolt and the one-time head coach at the High Performance Centre at UTech; and Anthony Davis, director of sports at UTech, dealt with a number of issues relating to the emergence of Jamaica's athletes as world-beaters, including the moot of 'World-class athletes: are they born or made?'

"World-class athletes can be made, as I think we have demonstrated at UTech via the MVP Track Club in recent years," said Davis, while making his presentation on the topic.

"At the beginning, we never went for stars who were very successful at, say, the annual Boys and Girls' Champs. Instead, the coaching staff went for athletes who they thought showed promise and made them into world-beaters.

"This is a result of, like most sporting and athletic disciplines, the mechanics sprinting can be taught, and once an athlete shows a bit of potential and is willing to train hard they can achieve," he added.

Genetics

But this view is not one that was shared by Myers, who explained that while training hard is important for the creation of world-class athletes, a natural genetic predisposition is needed to start the process.

"I believe world-class athletes, and to be more specific sprinters, are born with the genetic make-up that makes them suitable to be able to be trained and become top-class sprinters," Myers said.

"But having said that, having the appropriate genes does not equate to success. It is just the beginning, as there a number of other factors that, including a systematic age-group development structure, influence performance."

In the meantime, Dr Gyles, who pointed out that his institution has in recent years been embarking on a number of research projects geared towards ascertaining the reasons behind Jamaica's outstanding performances in track and field on the world stage, says he believes it was a combination of factors.

"I believe world-class athletes are both born and made. In some of the research we have carried out so far, we have seen where athletes of African descent tend to show certain genetic, physical attributes that make them more ideal to the discipline of sprinting.

"This, coupled with other factors, such as food intake and dieting, as well as a more scientific approach to coaching and training, as well as an established system of competition from very young, are some of the reasons we believe why we do so well," he declared.

Coleman, who is also a former coach of the IAAF High Performance Centre that is now based at UWI, believes genetics play a lead role.

"I believe that it is mainly genetically. One example of this is the fact that people of our Afrocentric stock keep going to other countries and finishing at the top of their pile. This, I think, says something is unique and special about our genes."

Other issues discussed during the forum, which will throughout the week be published by The Gleaner, include calls for the fast-tracking of a national sports policy, the role of G.C. Foster College in charting the course for sports development, especially at the tertiary level, the need and plans for further athletic research by UWI and UTech, and the psychological aspect of athletic performance.