During fittest could survive. By the “means
During the discussion part of my project, I will explain in greater detail how all these factors (nature and Nurture) help the Jamaicans become so dominant at sprinting. I will then reach a judgement in my conclusion of which factor is most important to the success of the Jamaicans.Athletics is the second most popular in Jamaica (second only to cricket) and the Jamaican schooling system encourages high participation by the children. This is mostly due to having strong role models like Usain Bolt and Shelly Anne Frasier price, who both regularly give back to local communities all across Jamaica, trying to encourage kids to follow in their footsteps and achieve greatness.
Events like CHAMPS, which is the national school track championships for children aged 10-19 years old is held with such high importance by the media and radio stations all across Jamaica. The 5-day intense completion is even held at Jamaicans national stadium. For the Nurture argument, I am going to use a variety of factors that may have contributed to the success of Jamaican runners. The most important factors are Environment and culture and CHAMPS.
Jamaica certainly has one of the unique cultures in the world, a country with a proud heritage and strong foundations. This is showed by the humble nature of the athletes. Parents encourage their children to excel in their education and athletics. Definition of nurture: “Nurture refers to all the environmental variables that impact who we are, including our early childhood experiences, our social relationships, and our surrounding culture.” (Cherry, 2017)Nurture As Famously by Charles Darwin, only the fittest could survive. By the “means of natural selection”. The fittest slaves could then pass down their genetics to the next generations. Features like the type of muscle tissue, the number of fast and slow twitch fibres and the percentage of ACTN3 all of these are determined by Genetics.
The slaves were put through so much physical pain and hardship that it had a lasting effect on their offspring.Another aspect which I will go into further detail in my dissertation will be the impact of the slave trade. Scientists believe this is where they can pinpoint where the Jamaicans could have got their advantageous genetic makeup. The idea that slave owners created ‘warrior slaves’ is perceived to be the answer to not only why the Jamaicans are faster but also why black people excel at very athletic sports such as basketball and NFL. For the nature aspect, I am going to look closely at how genetics could be a key contributor to the performance of the Jamaican. ACTN3 and ACE are believed to be the major sprint power genes that help the Jamaicans run faster. More importantly, ACTN3 is only found in fast twitch muscle fibres and not in slow twitch fibres, Jamaicans also have a large amount of these fast twitch fibres in their genetic make-up. This makes them special.
We know already that genes are something we are born with and have no way of changing. For some, it can be a blessing in disguise or it could be a hindrance. This is no more so true than when talking about sporting performance, the make-up of a human body can give someone a head start because of the parents they were born too. “The genetic make-up accounts for about 50 percent of variability in baseline performance”.
(Kellend, 2012) “Genetics is the study of heredity. Heredity is a biological process where a parent passes certain genes onto their children or offspring. Every child inherits genes from both of their biological parents and these genes in turn express specific traits.” (Mandal, What is Genetics? 2013)To understand the nature argument we have to look into one specific aspect of it, Genetics. So what really is Genetics? NatureIn my dissertation, I am going to discuss whether the dominance of Jamaican runners is down to nature or nurture?Why does Jamaica, an island nation of 2.8 million produce athletes that so easily trounce those from the US, a far richer country with a population of around 320 million? Over the last decade and more it has been the norm to see Jamaicans athletes take first on the podium in almost every single major athletics event. Whether it is 100m, 200m and 4 X 100m their dominance on the athletics track has been nothing short of outstanding.
The same can be said for both male and female races. However, is their unparalleled success down Nature or Nurture? Overview
