为什么牙买加人跑得那么快？！

里约田径赛场上，博尔特再次卫冕男子100米和200米冠军。全世界的观众都被牙买加飞人的速度震撼，看看Twitter上惊讶的网友评论。

“博尔特赢下比赛比我发这条推特还要快！”

“在这种环境下博尔特怎么能那么轻松？”

“无论哪个国家的观众都希望博尔特赢。”

“众所周知，在牙买加，博尔特早上10点离开家，上午9:30就到办公室了。”

赛后，博尔特在Twitter上表示，将冠军献给牙买加同胞。博尔特并非牙买加唯一的短跑巨星。这个只有270万人口的岛国已经培育出了众多的短跑名将。

“飞人博尔特在奥运田径赛场上展现出了统治级的实力。而他的同胞汤普森也巾帼不让须眉，包揽了女子100米和200米的金牌。为什么牙买加人在短跑赛场上格外耀眼？

1 奥运赛场上的牙买加人

In the race to decide the fastest man on earth, Usain Bolt was unconcerned when US rival Justin Gatlin stole an early lead.

在世界飞人决战中，美国选手加特林先发制人，而博尔特对此毫不在意。

The Olympic final of the men's 100 metres would not seem to afford much time for chipping away, but Bolt reeled in his rival by the halfway mark, overtaking him to become the first man to win the Olympic title three times—and confirm his status as the greatest sprinter in history.

奥运男子100米决赛可不是小打小闹的地方，但博尔特在半程就确立领先，超越了对手，成为第一位三次加冕奥运冠军的100米运动员，并巩固了自己史上最伟大的短跑运动员的地位。

Finishing in 9.81 seconds, Bolt also notched another mark on the 50 fastest 100m times ever recorded.Before Sunday, 29 of those runs belonged to fellow Jamaicans—many from Bolt himself and contemporaries Asafa Powell and Yohan Blake.

9.81秒的成绩标志着博尔特再一次进入100米历史成绩前五十。在周日前，前五十的成绩中有二十九个都是牙买加人跑出来的——从博尔特自己到同时代的鲍威尔和布莱克。

Women sprinters follow the pattern：most recently, Elaine Thompson picked up gold in the women's 100m in Rio on Saturday.

女子100米比赛如出一辙，几天前汤普森在周六的女子100米比赛中夺得金牌。

Elaine Thompson followed up her victory in the women's 100m with 200m gold.Thompson held off a stiff challenge from Dafne Shippers of the Netherlands to finish with the season's best time of 21.78 seconds, becoming the first woman to win both sprint titles since Florence Griffith Joyner of Team USA in 1988.

汤普森在夺得女子100米冠军后又拿走了女子200米的金牌。汤普森抵挡住了荷兰选手席佩斯的冲击，以赛季最佳的21秒78夺冠，成为自1998年美国名将乔伊纳以来第一位包揽两个短跑金牌的女子选手。

2 牙买加的短跑秘诀

So why does Jamaica, an island nation of 2.7m, produce athletes that so handily trounce those from the US, a far richer country with a population of around 320m?

为什么牙买加这样一个270万人口的岛国培养出的选手能够轻松战胜美国选手，即便美国要富裕得多，且人口高达约3.2亿？

For Bolt, it's the island's unique sporting culture.Sprinters, rather than footballers, are the nation's superstars; the annual schools athletics competition, called “Champs”, is played to packed stadiums and televised.The times set by these juniors can trump those of national champions in most other countries.

在博尔特看来，问题的答案在于这个岛国独特的体育文化。在牙买加，受到众人追捧的超级巨星是短跑运动员，而非足球运动员。每年，名为“冠军赛”的学校体系田径比赛都会吸引大量的观众并由电视转播。参赛的年轻人创下的纪录甚至可以超过大多数国家的全国冠军的成绩。

So the 29-year-old Bolt in the starting blocks in Rio was long-trained in the ways of bruising battles played out before big audiences.He has previously suggested that repeated victories over Powell, his fellow countryman, is partly because of Bolt's experience in the schools athletics competition.Powell's school did not always qualify for the event.

因此，当29岁的博尔特在万众的目光中站在里约的起跑线上时，他早已是身经百战，见惯不惊了。他曾暗示自己能够多次战胜同胞鲍威尔部分是因为在学校田径比赛中的经验。而鲍威尔的学校并不总能拿到参赛资格。

“It's just that we have a good system,” said Bolt.“Boys and girls Champs keep producing more and more athletes.For years to come, we will have the great athletes to win.”

“就是因为我们有个好的体系，”博尔特表示，“男子和女子’冠军赛’源源不断地制造出越来越多的田径选手。未来还会有伟大的运动员为我们带来胜利。”

Then there is genetics.A 2010 study into Jamaica's sprinting success delved into the impact of a gene associated with explosive running, whereby a bigger than average heart facilitates a faster flow of oxygen to the muscles.It was found that the frequency of this gene is higher in Jamaicans than west Africans, who in turn have it more than Europeans.

其次是基因。2010年，一份针对牙买加短跑王朝的研究深入探究了影响爆发性短跑的基因，即高于平均水平的心脏功能和更快地向肌肉供氧。研究人员发现这种基因在牙买加人身上出现的几率高于西非人，而西非人身上出现的几率又高于欧洲人。

Athletes of African descent are also known to have more “fast twitch” muscle fibres required for elite sprinting.The list of the ten fastest humans in history contains only black men from Jamaica, the US, Canada and Nigeria.

另外，非裔运动员肌肉中快肌纤维（对于运动的爆发力和速度有较强的提高作用）含量高，这一点对于他们成为顶尖选手也非常重要。史上最快的十位运动员全部是来自牙买加、美国、加拿大和尼日利亚的黑人。

3 外界的质疑

The Jamaican system has also had problems with drugs cheating.In The Bolt Supremacy：Inside Jamaica's Sprint Factory, the investigative sports journalist Richard Moore explored whether Bolt's victories could be explained by superior training, natural talent or more surreptitious means.

牙买加体育体制也面临着禁药问题。在《博尔特霸权——探索牙买加短跑工厂》中，调查体育记者理查德·摩尔研究了博尔特成功的原因是否在于高水平的训练、天赋或是有其他秘诀。

It was published after revelations in 2013 about the lax nature of Jamaican doping controls, with a number of sprinters, including Powell and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, subsequently serving bans for drugs offences.Fraser-Pryce won bronze in the women's 100m final on Saturday, while Powell will race alongside Bolt in Jamaica's 4 x 100m relay team .

2013年，就在这本书出版之前，牙买加松懈的禁药管理被曝光，导致包括弗雷泽-普赖斯和鲍威尔在内的多位牙买加短跑选手被禁赛。弗雷泽-普赖斯在周六的女子100米决赛中获得一枚铜牌，而鲍威尔将与博尔特一同代表牙买加参加4×100米接力赛。

Earlier this year, Nesta Carter, a sprinter who won gold with Bolt in Jamaica's 4 x 100m relay team during the Beijing Olympics was found to have a banned stimulant in his system following the retesting of doping samples from the 2008 games.

今年早些时候，在2008年奥运会兴奋剂复检中，博尔特的队友，北京奥运会4×100米接力冠军队员内斯塔·卡特尔被查出体内含有禁药成分。

Moore has concluded that Bolt is likely to be a clean athlete, while also arguing that chaotic administration in Jamaica made it unlikely the nation could execute a sophisticated state-doping system such as that in East Germany in the 1970s.Bolt has never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

摩尔认为博尔特很大可能是清白的。他还称牙买加混乱的管理使得他们很难像70年代的东德一样建立周密的国家禁药体系。博尔特从未被检出服用兴奋剂。

词汇总结

chip away蚕食；拆掉，削掉，铲除；凿；逐步瓦解

The Olympic final of the men's 100 metres would not seem to afford much time for chipping away, but Bolt reeled in his rival by the halfway mark, overtaking him to become the first man to win the Olympic title three times—and confirm his status as the greatest sprinter in history.

奥运男子100米决赛可不是小打小闹的地方，但博尔特在半程就确立领先，超越了对手，成为第一位三次加冕奥运冠军的100米运动员，并巩固了自己史上最伟大的短跑运动员的地位。

hold off拖延；抵抗;；抗拒；使…疏远

Thompson held off a stiff challenge from Dafne Shippers of the Netherlands to finish with the season's best time of 21.78 seconds, becoming the first woman to win both sprint titles since Florence Griffith Joyner of Team USA in 1988.

汤普森抵挡住了荷兰选手席佩斯的冲击，以赛季最佳的21秒78夺冠，成为自1998年美国名将乔伊纳以来第一位包揽两个短跑金牌的女子选手。

bruising[ˈbru:zɪŋ]

adj.殊死的;十分激烈的

So the 29-year-old Bolt in the starting blocks in Rio was long-trained in the ways of bruising battles played out before big audiences.

因此，当29岁的博尔特在万众的目光中站在里约的起跑线上时，他早已是身经百战，见惯不惊了。

delve into钻研，深入研究

A 2010 study into Jamaica's sprinting success delved into the impact of a gene associated with explosive running, whereby a bigger than average heart facilitates a faster flow of oxygen to the muscles.

2010年，一份针对牙买加短跑王朝的研究深入探究了影响爆发性短跑的基因，即高于平均水平的心脏功能和更快地向肌肉供氧。