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Physically gifted people are extremely unevenly distributed. The number of successful athletes depends on many factors: genetic traits, the wealth of the country, and the quality of sports education and sports pharmacology. The maps below illustrate the countries with the greatest concentration of athletic talent.
The Distribution of Olympic champions across countries
In percentage terms, the most significant number of Olympic champions live in developed countries because developed countries can provide better training conditions for athletes. The map below shows countries by a number of Olympic medals per 10 million people.
But the Olympic champions in some sports are confined to specific territories of the planet, which suggests a concentration of genotype types that give an advantage in a particular sport.
Birthplaces of the 100 Fastest 1500m Runners of All Time
Reddit user animbicile marked the approximate birthplaces of the 100 fastest 1500m runners of all time using data of worldathletics.com.
Kenya is home to the most significant number of runners in the top 100. It is also surprising to see the number of Moroccan runners in the top 100. Morocco also is home to the world record holder Hicham El Guerrouj, who ran a 3:26.00 in 1998.
The most significant number of long-distance runners come from the same mountain tribe in Kenia.
According to the series of Radiolab podcast “Cut and Run,” it has to do with diet, culture (running to school/ general toughness instilled by the culture), and their ankles. Having slightly smaller ankles means they have to move less weight with each step, which adds over 10,000m.
Birthplaces of the 100 fastest 10,000m runners of all time
Every Olympic gold medallist in men’s water polo since 2000 was born within the marked area
