Content area

Full Text

Pantelis Theodoros Nikolaidis [1; 2] and Jan Heller [3] and Beat Knechtle [4; 5]

Academic Editor: Laura Guidetti

1, Exercise Physiology Laboratory, Nikaia, Greece

2, Faculty of Health Sciences, Metropolitan College, Athens, Greece, mitropolitiko.edu.gr

3, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, cuni.cz

4, Gesundheitszentrum St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland

5, Institute of Primary Care, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, uzh.ch

Received Apr 20, 2017; Accepted Jul 17, 2017

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

1. Introduction

It is well known that athletes from a specific region or country are dominating certain sports disciplines. For example, runners from East Africa (i.e., Kenia and Ethiopia) are the fastest in track and road running up to the marathon distance [1, 2]. It has been shown that the fastest runners from Kenya and Ethiopia come from very specific regions. In Kenya, most national and international athletes come from the Rift Valley province and belong to the Kalenjin ethnic group and Nandi subtribe [3]. In Ethiopia, most marathon runners are from the regions of Arsi and Shewa [4].

For other sports disciplines such as triathlon, an effect of nationality on performance has also been observed: for example, European athletes dominate performances in Double Iron ultra-triathlons [5]. Furthermore, it has been shown that preferably local athletes are dominating specific races of various endurance sports. For example, the fastest triathletes competing in “Norseman Xtreme Triathlon” held in Norway were Norwegian women and men [6] and the fastest triathletes competing in “Ironman Hawaii” held in Hawaii, USA, were US-American women and men [7]. Greek men were the faster in “Spartathlon” (246 km) held in Europe, whereas American ultra-marathoners dominated both participation and performance in “Badwater” (217 km) in the USA [8]. For swimmers crossing the English Channel between England and France, most of the competitors were from Great Britain, USA, Australia, and Ireland. Although most swimmers were from England, British swimmers were, however, not the fastest. The fastest female swimmers were from the USA, Australia, and Great Britain and the fastest male swimmers were from the USA, Great Britain, and Australia [9, 10].

Cross-country skiing is...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Show less