Two US academics ... argue that black sprinters have a 0.15 second advantage over their white rivals because they tend to have a higher centre of gravity, meaning they can fall to the ground more quickly between each stride.

"Locomotion is essentially a continual process of falling forward," Bejan said. "Body mass falls forward,then rises again. Mass that falls from a higher altitude falls faster. In running, the altitude is set by the location of the center of gravity".

Could someone help me understand this?

Is it really true that things falling from greater heights fall faster? Surely it's just that things which have a longer time in which to accelerate end up falling faster. (If anything height would lessen speed as the influence of gravity decreases with distance. I understand that at these distances weaker gravity can be discounted).

But if it's just that faster falling is a result of longer time to fall how does this affect sprinters? If they all reach about the same altitude as they run then they are all falling for the same length of time. If the ones with higher centre of mass reach a greater altitude then they might be falling faster when they hit the ground but they aren't hitting the ground sooner.

Damn. All this time I thought Patrick Chan was Asian. Turns out he's black.

o_O

It's just technique. This is dumb.

This seems retarded. Who are these two US academics?

http://www.pratt.duke.edu/duke_bejan...white_athletes

Man, more Mason-Dixon envy. No wonder they don't let the guy who has blades for legs run legit Olympics. He'd probably crack 9.2 within a decade.