Trivers Robert, Palestis Brian G, Manning John T
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2013 Aug 19;8(8):e72244. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0072244. eCollection 2013.
Jamaican athletes are prominent in sprint running but the reasons for their success are not clear. Here we consider the possibility that symmetry, particularly symmetry of the legs, in Jamaican children is linked to high sprinting speed in adults. Our study population was a cohort of 288 rural children, mean age 8.2 (± 1 SD = 1.7) years in 1996. Symmetry was measured in 1996 and 2006 from the fluctuating asymmetry (FA) of three lower-body traits and we constructed a lower body composite FA trait (Comp lb-FA). In 2010 we measured sprinting speed (for 90 m and 180 m races) in participants recruited from our original cohort. There were 163 untrained adults in our sample. We found: (i) high Comp lb and knee symmetry in 1996 and 2006 were linked to fast sprinting times in our 2010 runners and (ii) our sample of sprinters appears to have self-selected for greater symmetry. We conclude that high knee symmetry in childhood is linked to an ability to sprint fast in adult Jamaicans as well as a readiness to sprint.
牙买加运动员在短跑项目中表现突出，但其成功的原因尚不清楚。在此，我们探讨牙买加儿童的对称性，尤其是腿部对称性，是否与成年人的高短跑速度有关。我们的研究对象是1996年的一组288名农村儿童，平均年龄8.2岁（±1标准差 = 1.7）。1996年和2006年通过测量三个下肢特征的波动不对称性（FA）来衡量对称性，并构建了一个下肢综合FA特征（Comp lb-FA）。2010年，我们测量了从原始队列中招募的参与者的短跑速度（90米和180米比赛）。我们的样本中有163名未经训练的成年人。我们发现：（i）1996年和2006年较高的Comp lb和膝盖对称性与2010年跑步者的快速短跑时间有关；（ii）我们的短跑运动员样本似乎是因为更高的对称性而自我选择的。我们得出结论，儿童时期较高的膝盖对称性与成年牙买加人快速短跑的能力以及短跑意愿有关。
