The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance (36 page)

Yang, Nan, et al. (2007). “The ACTN3 R577X Polymorphism in East and West African Athletes.”
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise
, 39(11):1985–88.

ACTN3 data from Japanese sprinters was generously shared by Noriyuki Fuku and Eri Mikami during a visit to the Department of Genomics for Longevity and Health at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.

155
The spread of the ACTN3 X variant in humans may have been an evolutionary adaptation:

North, Kathryn (2008). “Why Is α-Actinin-3 Deficiency So Common in the General Population? The Evolution of Athletic Performance.”
Twin Research and Human Genetics
, 11(4):384–94.

155
The best review of ACTN3 research and the impacts on muscle properties of α-actinin-3 deficiency:

Berman, Yemima, and Kathryn N. North (2010). “A Gene for Speed: The Emerging Role of α-Actinin-3 in Muscle Metabolism.”
Physiology
, 25:250–59.

155
The idea that the ACTN3 X variant may have spread as an adaptation to agriculture is posited on p. 117 of:

Cochran, Gregory, and Henry Harpending.
The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution
. Basic Books, 2010.

10

The Warrior-Slave Theory of Jamaican Sprinting

159
An overview of theories of Jamaican sprint success (p. 2 has ACTN3 data for Jamaicans and other populations):

Irving, Rachael, and Vilma Charlton eds.
Jamaican Gold: Jamaican Sprinters.
University of the West Indies Press, 2010.

161
Lists of sprinters of Jamaican descent who compete for other countries and of Jamaican sprinters from Trelawny can be found in the annex of:

Robinson, Patrick.
Jamaican Athletics: A Model for 2012 and the World
. Black Amber, 2009.

(These are merely partial lists. The Trelawny list, for example, does not include Olympic 100-meter finalist Michael Green or 4×100-meter world champion Merlene Frazer, both of whom were born in Trelawny.)

163
A thorough history of Jamaica’s Maroons (the “born Heroes” and “elevation of the soul” quotes appears on p. 45):

Campbell, Mavis C.
The Maroons of Jamaica 1655–1796
. Africa World Press, 1990.

163
A history of Jamaica, written with particular attention to the African-Jamaican perspective:

Sherlock, Philip, and Hazel Bennett.
The Story of the Jamaican People
.
Ian Randle Publishers, 1998.

(The “dangerous inmates” quote and William Beckford’s description of a cane fire appear on p. 134 and the “dare not” quote on p. 139. Descriptions of Maroon battles for independence and of Cudjoe and Nanny can be found in chapter 13: “The African-Jamaican Liberation Wars, 1650–1800.”)

164
A fascinating contemporary history of the Maroons is in the unabridged reprints of early-nineteenth-century letters:

Dallas, Robert C.
The History of the Maroons: From Their Origin to the Establishment of Their Chief Tribe at Sierra Leone
(vols. I and II). Adamant Media Corporation, 2005. (Originally published in 1803 by T. N. Longman and O. Rees.)

166
A description of the slave/warrior/sprinter story, with Michael Johnson’s quote from the Channel 4 documentary:

Beck, Sally. “Survival of the Fastest: Why Descendants of Slaves Will Take the Medals in the London 2012 Sprint Finals.”
Daily Mail
, June 30, 2012.

167
Y chromosomes of Jamaican men:

Benn Torres, Jada (2012). “Y Chromosome Lineages in Men of West African Descent.”
PLoS ONE
, 7(1):e29687.

167
Genetic studies of the demographics of Jamaica, with both Errol Morrison and Yannis Pitsiladis as coauthors:

Deason, Michael L., et al. (2012). “Interdisciplinary Approach to the Demography of Jamaica.”
BMC Evolutionary Biology
, 12:24.

Deason, M., et al. (2012). “Importance of Mitochondrial Haplotypes and Maternal Lineage in Sprint Performance Among Individuals of West African Ancestry.”
Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports
, 22:217–23.

167
DNA shows that Taino Native Americans did not die out in Jamaica. The study also gives data on the degree of genetic “African-ness” of various Caribbean populations:

Benn Torres, J., et al. (2007). “Admixture and Population Stratification in African Caribbean Populations.”
Annals of Human Genetics
, 72:90–98.

169
A visit to Champs should be on the bucket list of any track-and-field fan. The next best treat:

Lawrence, Hubert.
Champs 100: A Century of Jamaican High School Athletics, 1910–2010
. Great House, 2010.

174
Pitsiladis’s advice to prospective white sprinters appears here:

“No Proof Sporting Success Is Genetic According to Academic.” Scotsman .com, March 23, 2011.

11

Malaria and Muscle Fibers

175
Background on latitude and pelvic breadth:

Nuger, Rachel Leigh.
The Influence of Climate on the Obstetrical Dimensions of the Human Bony Pelvis
. UMI Dissertation Publishing, 2011.

175
The Cooper and Morrison paper introducing their hypothesis:

Morrison, E. Y. St. A., and P. D. Cooper (2006). “Some Bio-Medical Mechanisms in Athletic Prowess.”
West Indian Medical Journal
, 55(3):205–209.

176
Patrick Cooper’s widow Juin—and several obits—provided details of his life. Cooper’s book on black athletes:

Cooper, Patrick Desmond.
Black Superman: A Cultural and Biological History of the People That Became the World’s Greatest Athletes
. First Sahara, 2003.

177
The famous study of 1968 Mexico City Olympians, again:

de Garay, Alfonso L., Louise Levine, and J. E. Lindsay Carter, eds.
Genetic and Anthropological Studies of Olympic Athletes.
Academic Press, 1974.

177
Underrepresentation of sickle-cell carriers at race distances of eight hundred meters and above:

Eichner, Randy E. (2006). “Sickle Cell Trait and the Athlete.”
Gatorade Sports Science Institute: Sports Science Exchange
, 19(4):103.

177
Analysis of the risk of death to college football players with sickle-cell trait:

Harmon, Kimberly G., et al. (2012). “Sickle Cell Trait Associated with a RR of Death of 37 Times in National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Athletes: A Database with 2 Million Athlete-Years as Denominator.”
British Journal of Sports Medicine
, 46:325–30.

178
The first article Cooper cited showing low hemoglobin levels in African Americans:

Garn, Stanley M., Nathan J. Smith, and Diance C. Clark (1975). “Lifelong Differences in Hemoglobin Levels Between Blacks and Whites.”
Journal of the National Medical Association
, 67(2):91–96.

178
Data tables from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics are publicly available, and are easily located with a call to the Center. Heaps of hemoglobin data are also available in published reports:

Hollowell J. G., et al. (2005). “Hematological and Iron-Related Analytes—Reference Data for Persons Aged 1 Year and Over: United States, 1988–94.” National Center for Health Statistics.
Vital Health Statistics
, 11(247).

Robins, Edwin B., and Steve Blum (2007). “Hematologic Reference Values for African American Children and Adolescents.”
American Journal of Hematology
, 82:611–14.

178
Study of 715,000 blood donors:

Mast, Alan E., et al. (2010). “Demographic Correlates of Low Hemoglobin Deferral Among Prospective Whole Blood Donors.”
Transfusion
, 50(8): 1794–1802.

179
The quote in which doctors refer to “some compensatory mechanism” appears here:

Kraemer, Michael J., et al. (1977). “Race-Related Differences in Peripheral Blood and in Bone Marrow Cell Populations of American Black and American White Infants.”
Journal of the National Medical Association
, 69(5):327–31.

179
The fiber type study coauthored by Bouchard:

Ama, P. F., et al. (1986). “Skeletal Muscle Characteristics in Sedentary Black and Caucasian Males.”
Journal of Applied Physiology
, 61(5):1758–61.

180
Sickle-cell trait causes reduced capacity to produce energy through pathways that rely primarily on oxygen:

Bitanga, E., and J. D. Rouillon (1998). “Influence of the Sickle Cell Trait Heterozygote on Energy Abilities.”
Pathologie Biologie
, 46(1):46–52.

Le Gallais, D., et al. (1994). “Sickle Cell Trait as a Limiting Factor for High-Level Performance in a Semi-Marathon.”
International Journal of Sports Medicine
, 15(7):399–402.

180
For quick background on the malaria protection conferred by sickle-cell trait:

Pierce, E. C. “How Sickle Cell Trait Protects Against Malaria.”
Medical Journal of Therapeutics Africa
, 1(1):61–62.

180
Anthony C. Allison first documented the connection between sickle-cell trait and malaria resistance:

Allison, A. C. (1954). “Protection Afforded by Sickle-Cell Trait Against Subtertian Malarial Infection.”
British Medical Journal
, 1(4857):290–94.

Allison, Anthony C. (2002). “The Discovery of Resistance to Malaria of Sickle-Cell Heterozygotes.”
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education
, 30(5):279–87.

181
The gradual disappearance of the sickle-cell gene in African Americans is
discussed on p. 99 of:

Nesse, Randolph M., and George C. Williams.
Why We Get Sick
:
The New Science of Darwinian Medicine
. Vintage, 1996.

181
Risk of malaria with iron supplementation has long been documented by
Stephen J. Oppenheimer and others:

English, M., and R. W. Snow (2006). “Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation and Malaria Risk.”
Lancet
, 367(9505):90–91.

Oppenheimer, S. J., et al. (1986). “Iron Supplementation Increases Prevalence and Effects of Malaria: Report on Clinical Studies in Papua New Guinea.”
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
, 80(4)603–12.

Oppenheimer, Stephen (2007). “Comments on Background Papers Related to Iron, Folic Acid, Malaria and Other Infections.”
Food and Nutrition Bulletin
, 28(4):S550–59.

182
In 2006, the WHO revised iron supplementation recommendations for
malaria zones: http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/documents/iron_statement/en/.

182
The global pattern of the sickle-cell gene and its relation to malaria (with color-coded maps available online):

Piel, Frédéric B., et al. (2010). “Global Distribution of the Sickle Cell Gene and Geographical Confirmation of the Malaria Hypothesis.”
Nature Communications
, 1:104.

182
Danish scientists proposed that fast-twitch fibers might explain physical traits documented in African Americans:

Nielsen, J., and D. L. Christensen (2011). “Glucose Intolerance in the West
African Diaspora: A Skeletal Muscle Fibre Type Distribution Hypothesis.”
Acta Physiologica
, 202(4):605–16.

183
Daniel Le Gallais’s coauthored studies on athletic performance and
sickle-cell trait:

Bilé A., et al. (1998). “Sickle Cell Trait in Ivory Coast Athletic Throw and Jump Champions, 1956–1995.”
International Journal of
Sports Medicine
, 19(3):215–19.

Hue, O., et al. (2002). “Alactic Anaerobic Performance in Subjects with Sickle Cell Trait and Hemoglobin AA.”
International Journal of
Sports Medicine
, 23(3):
174–77.

Le Gallais, D., et al. (1994). “Sickle Cell Trait as a Limiting Factor for High-Level Performance in a Semi-Marathon.”
International Journal of
Sports Medicine
, 15(7):399–402.

Marlin, L., et al. (2005). “Sickle Cell Trait in French West Indian Elite Sprint Athletes.”
International Journal of
Sports Medicine
, 26(8):622–25.

184
The two studies showing a muscle fiber type proportion shift in low hemoglobin mice:

Esteva, Santiago, et al. (2008). “Morphofunctional Responses to Anaemia in Rat Skeletal Muscle.”
Journal of Anatomy
, 212:836–44.

Ohira, Yoshinobu, and Sandra L. Gill (1983). “Effects of Dietary Iron Deficiency on Muscle Fiber Characteristics and Whole-Body Distribution of Hemoglobin in Mice.”
Journal of Nutrition
, 113:1811–18.

185
In populations at altitude in East Africa the sickle-cell mutation is rare or nonexistent:

Ayodo, George, et al. (2007). “Combining Evidence of Natural Selection with Association Analysis Increases Power to Detect Malaria-Resistance Variants.”
American Journal of
Human Genetics
, 81:234–42.

Foy, Henry, et al. (1954). “The Variability of Sickle-Cell Rates in the Tribes of Kenya and the Southern Sudan.”
British Medical Journal
, 1(4857):294.

Williams, Dianne. Race,
Ethnicity and Crime: Alternate Perspectives
. Algora Publishing, 2012, p. 20.

12

Can Every Kalenjin Run?

186
A breakdown on who the elite runners in Kenya are and what tribes they come from:

Onywera, Vincent O., et al. (2006). “Demographic Characteristics of Elite Kenyan Endurance Runners.”
Journal of Sports Sciences
, 24(4):415–22.

190
Cattle raiding was not regarded as theft so long as not from the same tribe:
Bale, John, and Joe Sang.
Kenyan Running: Movement Culture, Geography and Global Change
. Frank Cass, 1996, p. 53.

190
The best compilation of scholarly writing examining the success of East African runners:

Pitsiladis, Yannis, et al., eds.
East African Running: Towards a Cross-Disciplinary Perspective
. Routledge, 2007.

190
Ethiopian population data comes from the “Summary and Statistical Report of the 2007 Population and Housing Census,” issued by Ethiopia’s Public Census Commission.