Written by Bethel Jegol
Edited by Hannah K
Created with BioRender.com
From the moment any Ethiopian child was able to form memories, long-distance running has been the main topic in any Habesha and East African household. From Eliud Kipchoge, Kenenisa Bekele, and the Dibaba sisters to someone who is considered the greatest of all time–Halie Gebrselassie–East Africans have dominated the long-distance field for ages, and it doesn’t seem like they’re stopping anytime soon. Despite the fact that any East African kid at one point in time believed they would surpass the crazy superhero endurance skills Gebrselassie possessed, all of them wondered one thing and one thing only–why did they always win? Maybe it was the pride they held or maybe it was the serious pep talks they had before their races. Or maybe it was in their blood. Looking at this from a scientific perspective, wondering if this correlation of East Africans and dominance in long-distance running is possibly due to genetics is something to explore.
Background Information
So how advanced are these East African runners? According to Genetic differentiation in East African ethnicities and its relationship with endurance running success, “...as of January 2021, of the 100 athletes from each sex holding the best marathon times in history, 76 women and 93 men were born in East Africa” (Zani et al., 2022). The majority of these athletes come from the Kalenjin ethnicity from Kenya and the Oromo from Ethiopia. Starting from the 1950s when these runners emerged, they have held world records and continuously beat those records as well, especially the 26.2 marathon. The top ten men's times for this race only include Kenyan and Ethiopian runners, with Kevin Kiptum at a time of two hours and thirty-five seconds and the top ten women’s times include all Kenyan or Ethiopian-born women, excluding Paula Radcliffe from Great Britain. Researchers, as well as the world, wonder how and why these runners came to be. Exploring the biological coding of these individuals is one way to start to speculate on these fascinations.
East African Record Holders vs Genetic Makeup
Multiple factors have been considered when exploring the genetic differentiation between East African long-distance runners and other runners. According to Genetic Aspects of Athletic Performance: the African Runners Phenomenon, two candidate genes were looked at to explain the success of African runners, the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene, and alpha-actinin-3 (ACTN3) gene. They found that “with regard to the ACE gene, a polymorphism of insertion (I) is associated with lower levels of ACE than with deletion (D)” and that “in general, the I-allele from this gene has been associated with performance during aerobic endurance tests, and the trainability of cardiorespiratory fitness, reflected by maximal oxygen uptake, determined by the ASSL1 gene and 21 SNPs” (Vancini et al., 2014). Concurrently, “the D-allele has been associated with performance during power tests” (Vancini et al., 2014). According to their findings, however, there was no significant difference in the I and D-alleles between East African runners and the general population. Looking at the ACTN3 gene, it is often associated with the “highest level of physical performance and has been found with different frequencies in different populations” (Vancini et al., 2014). Though again, “there was no evidence of a possible association between the R577X polymorphism and performance in aerobic endurance tests by East African runners, thus suggesting that the ACTN3 deficiency is not a determinant for the sporting success observed among African runners” (Vancini et al., 2014).
Looking at East African running dominance: what is behind it?, they had different findings. With particular regard to Kenyan runners, Saltin et al reported elevated 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase but not citrate synthase activity, differences that Weston et al suggest may be a result of the confounding effect of altitude exposure (Hamilton, 2000). In addition, “Weston et al found African runners to have a lower percentage of type I muscle fibre, the fibre type that is typically associated with endurance performance” (Hamilton, 2000). However, in the Y chromosome haplogroups of elite Ethiopian endurance runners, they explored the Y chromosome haplogroups in the Arsi group in Ethiopia. They found that “there were significant differences in Y chromosome haplogroup distribution between the general Ethiopian controls and the 5–10K and combined endurance runners, and between the Arsi controls and the 5–10K, the marathon and the endurance runners as a whole” (Moran et al., 2004). This suggests that while the Y chromosome haplogroups are associated with athletic status, they would need to test the Kenyan long-distance runners to see if there is an exclusive biological influence on long-distance running.
Other Factors that Play into this Dominance
Since this topic is highly debated, exploring other factors besides genetic disposition had to happen. Arinze Esomnofu looked to consider factors like the fact that “an average Kenyan’s leg is 400 grams lighter than those of their European competitors, which translates to an energy saving of 8% when running” (Ramsammy, 2022) … and the fact that East African diets consist of lots of carbohydrates and very little fat, which is great for long-distance running. Also, living in conditions with high altitudes and just an overall psychological advantage with being the top competitors, as well as a plethora of other components, is something to consider.
In conclusion, it seems as if genetic factors do not specifically and only contribute to East African success in long-distance running. However, it could be a contributing factor along with all other factors combined. Because there are so few experiments and studies made to explore this fascinating phenomenon, completely ruling out the fact that genetics can play a factor in East Africa's dominance in long-distance running would be misguided. Notwithstanding all of this, certainly, Ethiopians will always exclaim, "It's in our blood!" for ages and centuries to come.
Works Cited
Douglas, S. (2024, March 3). These are the world’s fastest marathoners. Runner’s World. https://www.runnersworld.com/races-places/a20823734/these-are-the-worlds-fastest-marathoners-and-marathon-courses/
Hamilton, B. (2000). East African running dominance: what is behind it? British Journal of Sports Medicine, 34(5), 391–394. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.34.5.391
Moran, C. N., Scott, R. A., Adams, S. M., Warrington, S. J., Jobling, M. A., Wilson, R. H., Goodwin, W. H., Georgiades, E., Wolde, B., & Pitsiladis, Y. P. (2004). Y chromosome haplogroups of elite Ethiopian endurance runners. Human Genetics, 115(6), 492–497. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-004-1202-y
Ramsammy, A. (2022, August 31). What makes East Africans so good at distance running? Global Sport Matters. https://globalsportmatters.com/science/2019/11/01/what-makes-east-africans-so-good-at-distance-running/
Vancini, R. L., Pesquero, J. B., Fachina, R. J., Andrade, M. D. S., Borin, J. P., Montagner, P. C., & De Lira, C. a. B. (2014). Genetic aspects of athletic performance: the African runners phenomenon. Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine, 123. https://doi.org/10.2147/oajsm.s61361
Zani, A. L. S., Gouveia, M. H., Aquino, M. M., Quevedo, R., Menezes, R. L., Rotimi, C., Lwande, G. O., Ouma, C., Mekonnen, E., & Fagundes, N. J. R. (2022). Genetic differentiation in East African ethnicities and its relationship with endurance running success. PLoS ONE, 17(5), e0265625. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265625
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