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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
ASIAN ATHLETES LIMITED BY GENES OR NURTURE?
o debate on the prospects of Asian athletes in American sports passes without mention of Yao Ming, the Shanghai Sharks's 7-6, 265-pound center who recently led China to an 83-82 upset over the U.S. His prospects as the likely top pick of the 2002 NBA draft have been trumpeted by no lesser authorities than Michael Jordan and Bill Walton.
But the 21-year-old superstar is literally one in a billion (1.25 billion to be exact). Young Yao is the product, genetically and culturally, of a 6-10 father and 6-4 mother, both of whom played basketball for China's national teams. His case is as likely to confuse the nature-vs-nurture debate as to help resolve it. After all, his height may be merely the tip of the genetic iceberg when it comes to his promise as a world-class basketballer.
More familiar to Asian Americans are Michael Chang (5-9) who won the French Open at age 17, and Ichiro Suzuki (5-9), whose batting and base-stealing have lifted the Mariners from the basement to the heavens. Both seem endowed with standard physical equipment but have outperformed more powerful physiques. And on the women's side Kristi Yamaguchi, Michele Kwan, Seri Pak and legions of Chinese divers and gymnasts have shown that champions needn't be amazons.
But these successes haven't silenced those who argue that as a race Asians lack the genetic gifts to challenge black and white athletes in power sports. Asians are genetically smaller and weaker, they claim, and can only excel in sports calling for quickness and agility. They cite Asian underrepresentation in track and field, football, basketball, soccer, tennis, boxing and the like.
Will the future mirror the past? Are we genetically limited to excelling only in a few select sports or will changing social and economic conditions produce a generation of Asian superstars across the sports spectrum?
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Eric Pele the 300 plus pound superheavyweight grappler and No.1 contender for the King of the Cage world heavyweight championship is also Samoan. He is a stablemate of UFC champ Tito Ortiz.
Holla Holla!
Monday, May 27, 2002 at 02:12:30 (PDT)
Samoan Tony Leiato who is built like a mack truck is a World Bench Press Champion and record holder in the World Drug Free Powerlifting championships. His record still stands in his 275 pound weight division. I believe his wife is Asian (Filipina?). Their son has very Asian eyes with that natural Polynesian look and golden tan tone. Best linebacker of the NFL in the 90s and still goin hard is pro-bowler Junior Seau another Samoan. Watch out for former King of the Cage World No Rules Grappling champion samoan Niko Vitale to fight in another major promotion either UFC or Pride. First ever Polynesian Box office champion The Rock is also Samoan, so is WWF star Rikishi. Top heavyweight boxing contender David Tua is believed by many to be the most powerful fighter in the game right now, more so than Mike Tyson. In a 1997 12 round fight with Ike Ibeabuchi, Tua broke the record for most punches thrown and landed in a heavyweight bout set 22 yrs earlier by Muhammad Ali-Joe Fraizer, note that Ali-Fraizer 'thrilla in manila' was a 15 round bout. do many polynesians classify under asian?
stingin like a bee
Saturday, May 18, 2002 at 15:46:38 (PDT)
rudeboy
i agree. its a fact not only that samoans are on average the heaviest ppl in the world but have a highest average level of sporting success p/capita. from 300+ pound giants in the nfl, heavyweight top contender david tua who has the most powerful left hook in boxing, to mark hunt the k-1 world heavyweight champion to falaniko vitale who is a no-rules grappling King of the Cage light heavyweight champion. they also have olympic gold medalists in eric fonoimoana and greg louganis. 400 pounds of rock hard solid muscle, big samoan joe onosai placed second in the worlds strongest man competition. the player most rugby followers believe is the greatest rugby player to have played the game is all black legend michael jones who is also samoan. i was following the journey of college standout big toniu fonoti to the nfl, he played in the college national final at 377 pounds and is 6'4 tall. fonoti was said to be the most intimidating force in college football by espn, he was selected by san diego and is expected to make some noise. yes jonah lomu did run the 100m at 10.7 seconds and he is really 6'5, 264 pounds while maori david dixon is actually 6'6, 350 pounds, none the less still huge. remember big solid 250 pound samoan linebacker niko noga of u.h and nfl fame? he also ran 10.7 sec in the 100m. amazing for a ppl who only number about 400 000 and for all polynesians combined at just over a million, their sporting success is uncomparable. but note that samoans and other polys excel mostly in power, contact and fighting sports, you wouldnt see many of them doing ice skating, diving, gymnastics lol. there was a funny statement made in GQ magazine which did a feature on samoan football players, a tongan player said why samoans and tongans didn't excel in basketball and baseball as they did in football was because they didn't quite have the height for basketball and also didn't have the temperment for baseball cos a baseball bat in a samoans hands is a very dangerous situation. funnily enough the first and only samoan to play in the nba was wallace rank for the san diego clippers and the la lakers championship team back in 1983. first and only samoan to play for major league baseball was tony solaita back in the 70s for the angels. imagine if polynesians had the same no. of ppl as those of african descent, dang they'd probably dominate most of those power, contact and power sports.
grapplin fan
Friday, May 17, 2002 at 12:39:01 (PDT)
polynesians are renowned for their physiques, for a race of people who combined(samoan, tongan, maori etc) would probably number not much more than one million they have an unbelieveably high occurance of giants. they not only tend to be tall but they also have an amazingly high level of natural muscle development. jonah lomu of the new zealand all blacks rugby team is 6'6 280lbs and run the 100m in 10.7 secs. also david dixon of the minnesota vikings who is one of the bigest men in the NFL and alsomaori is 6'7 370lbs and is also amazingly quick for a man of his size. when it comes to sport where size, power and athletic ability are key there is no doubt that african americans are the most dominant. but for natural size and power i believe that the polynesians are the most naturally gifted athletes in the world. strangely enough they too have some asian ancestry in their distant past (probably around 15,000 years ago), albeit very minute.
rudeboy
Monday, May 13, 2002 at 20:54:24 (PDT)
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