Something in the Water: Where Do Great Athletes Come From? | Good Sport

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Muck City," Florida. Kinston, North Carolina. The courts of New York City in the 80s and 90s. These places share one unique trait: they found a way to produce a particular kind of great athlete, over and over. Is there something in the water – or is it something else? In our first episode, host Jody Avirgan talks to sports journalist Bomani Jones and Olympic table tennis coach Rajul Sheth about talent "hotbeds," the role opportunity and access play in crafting success, and the important distinction between having talent and achieving greatness.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Ted Talks Daily, I'm Elise Hugh, and today we've got something different.
0:09.0	Another Ted Audio Collective podcast called Goodsport with Jody Overgan.
0:13.8	It's a show that's really making the case for sports by exploring how much sports and
0:18.2	competition reveal about being human.
0:22.0	Here is an episode we thought you would particularly enjoy, and to hear more episodes, follow Goodsport
0:27.1	wherever you're listening to this.
0:31.9	Bommani Jones noticed something.
0:37.5	That's one of the best things about Bommani.
0:39.4	He's one of the most popular sports journalists around.
0:41.5	He watches games, he has takes, he has an HBO show, he has a podcast, we all have a podcast.
0:47.3	But more than anything, Bommani is a notice.
0:51.9	I kind of picture him watching a football game on a Monday night, standing a little off
0:56.1	to the side, arms crossed, head cocked, thinking about the players, the players, the sport
1:00.8	as a whole.
1:02.1	And then he notices something about some of the players on the field, especially the
1:08.0	wide receivers, especially the white wide receivers.
1:13.3	It's very interesting if you note the like really good white wide receivers, they seem
1:19.9	overall to have one thing in common, which is they all seem to grow up in places that
1:26.4	are almost exclusively white, or at the very least don't have black people.
1:33.1	Now this, this is an intriguing observation.
1:36.2	If you've watched any football over the last 40 years, you've probably noticed that most
1:40.8	of the top wide receivers are black, but there are the occasional white pass catchers
	...

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