MAN AND SUPERMAN: In athletic competitions, what qualifies as a sporting chance? – By Malcolm Gladwell

Thanks to Sean for passing this along.

What we are watching when we watch élite sports, then, is a contest among wildly disparate groups of people, who approach the starting line with an uneven set of genetic endowments and natural advantages. There will be Donald Thomases who barely have to train, and there will be Eero Mäntyrantas, who carry around in their blood, by dumb genetic luck, the ability to finish forty seconds ahead of their competitors. Élite sports supply, as Epstein puts it, a “splendid stage for the fantastic menagerie that is human biological diversity.” The menagerie is what makes sports fascinating. But it has also burdened high-level competition with a contradiction. We want sports to be fair and we take elaborate measures to make sure that no one competitor has an advantage over any other. But how can a fantastic menagerie ever be a contest among equals?

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Related previous posts:

Malcolm Gladwell: COMPLEXITY AND THE TEN-THOUSAND-HOUR RULE

Interview with David Epstein: How Athletes Get Great

What it takes to be great

Related books:

Outliers: The Story of Success

The Sports Gene

The Secret Race