Article Critique from the book “The Sports Gene”. In this article, the writer talked about the athletes were getting better and better with the changed of the time. He tried to find out whether some people carried special gene in their body or just because technologies were improved.
Book Review VHSL Newsletter
After reading the essay from Book Review VHSL Newsletter, I was very interested in the book The Sports Gene, so I searched it on the internet and try to find some information about this book. The book was talking about sports gene and discussing the athletics getting faster, bigger and stronger with the changed of the time.
The author, David Epstein, wondered whether the Jamaican Americans who made track team so successful might carry some special speed gene from their tiny island. Or whether endurance genes might have traveled with runner from East Africa. To be honest, I’m curious too. I thought I had the same wonder as the author. Always wondered how could Jamaicans Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt running that fast and no one can beat him. Furthermore, I remembered my country held a 24 hours marathon every year and the winner always from Kenya which located in East Africa. Were they really had special gene inside their body?
I watched David Epstein speech on TED, he indicated that the winner of the 2012 Olympic marathon ran two hours and eight minutes. Had he been racing against the winner of the 1904 Olympic marathon, he would have won by nearly an hour and a half. I felt that this was amazing, I can believe the results can progress so fast. David Epstein also showed another example, in 1936, Jesse Owens held the world record in the 100 meters. Had Jesse Owens been racing last year in the world championships of the 100 meters, when Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt finished, Owens would have still had 14 feet to go. I believed that this was because modern athletics have better technology, they had all kinds of electronic equipment to help them during the training. Moreover, compared with the past, athletic had better nutrition. Most of the professional athletics had their own dietitian to assist them gained better performance in the competition. So is their have special gene in some athletics? I think I have to read the book and try to find out.