August 16, 2008

White Africans in the Olympics

One interesting development I've noticed is the growing prominence of whites representing black countries, most notably swimmer Kirsty Coventry, who represents Zimbabwe (she's lived in America since college, although she retains a slight Rhodesian accent -- she pronounces her American college Auburn as OW-burn). She's won seven of Zimbabwe's eight medals in history.

Last night in the men's 100m butterfly famously won by Michael Phelps by 0.01 seconds (i.e., it's a Big Time event), the fifth place finisher, behind world record holder Ian Crocker, was Jason Dunford, a rich white kid whose family is big in the Kenya tourism business.

I've seen other whites representing West Indian and African countries as well. Some of them live in those countries, some are presumably claiming ancestry by descent. It's often easier to get to the Olympics as the sole representative of Tanzania in your sport than by making the British or Australian Olympic team, which is typically limited in number (e.g., a maximum of three from a country in track events).

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ryan Pini - Papua New Guinea - came in eighth place in the final of the 100 meter butterfly. Funny, he looks white to me.

http://www.cncnoumea.net/bibliotheque/Ryan%20PINI%20avt%20apia.jpg

Stopped Clock said...

That blacks are poor swimmers in general is probably one of the lesser-known bits of information that people are afraid to talk about. Blacks have denser bodies than whites, enough that some of them cannot stay afloat in water, whereas even a white person who cant swim will usually float if they can just bring themselves to relax. I went to elementary school with a black boy who drowned after a crowded boat capsized, not merely because he couldn't swim (neither could some of the other kids), but apparently also because he couldn't stay afloat. Whether political correctness had any hand in causing this accident, I cant say. More likely it was peer pressure and a rather unfortunate turn of events.

Anonymous said...

interestingly enough both south african 400m hurderlers were white...and did quite well

Anonymous said...

The fortunes of the once world-beating West Indies cricket team have ebbed to such an extent that they've recently selected their first white player, the journeyman Australian-born Brendan Nash, since Geoff Greenidge in the early 1970s.

Anonymous said...

If blacks are such poor swimmers generally, how do you account for that dude who won a gold medal in the US team recently?

Anonymous said...

....cullen jones - the black dude who 'won' the medal was the slowest leg of the relay - and interestingly enough he is far and away the highest paid swimmer behind phelps - specifically because he is black -

but one moderately fast black doesn't mean that blacks can equal whites - there were NO blacks in any of the finals of swimming singles - on the other hand there were whites in the 100m heats but not the finals - the white runners like the black swimmers are fast but not fast enough.

Blacks do not make good swimmers for several reasons: they don' t have the mental discipline, they don't bodies (denser bones, etc) jamacia is surrounded by water, yet there are no black jamacians in the olympics for swimming, on the other hand they have lots of sprinters in the finals..


Why do we have to spend so much time discussing the obvious?

Anonymous said...

So why hasn't South Africa won a single medal in this olympics?

Anonymous said...

I recall a post by Brand or John Jay Ray citing evidence that Rhodesians were the healthiest, most intelligent Caucasian population in the world. Their heirs who fled to west are likely very successful.

Anonymous said...

Hundreds of thousands of white South Africans and Zimbabweans now live/work in the UK, and, yes, all indications are that they're a very successful economic group. Lots in Australia and New Zealand, as well.