Why are some groups overrepresented in particular sports, as African Americans are in basketball?
Given what we now know about the genetic history of humanity, you would expect all human groups to be represented more or less equally in sports and that’s exactly what you find, so long as you look at sports as a whole. Some groups are overrepresented in some sports, but they are exactly the sports you would expect if cultural forces were the principal cause of athletic success. African Americans are overrepresented in city sports like basketball and European Americans in suburban sports like swimming and tennis. As the social barriers to participation in sports start to change, so do these stereotypes, as represented by the Williams sisters in tennis and all of the eastern European players coming into the NBA. Some human groups clearly differ in some physical characteristics some are taller than others, for example, and this might produce an advantage in particular sports. But even these stereotypes can be misleading. When I was in Shanghai doing research for this book, I stayed next
