KENYA’S RUNNING TRIBE
肯尼亚长跑部落
This article is about a tribe in Kenya that has a remarkable faculty for turning out world class distance runners. The people are called the Kalenjin. They occupy an area about the size of Wales and they number something under 3 million, or about 10 % of Kenya’s population. But this group has earned about 75% of Kenya’s distance running honors.
本文讲述的是一个位于肯尼亚的部落，那儿产出了数量惊人的世界级长跑运动员。这个民族被称作卡伦津人，他们占据着一个和威尔士差不多大小的区域，人口不到300万，约占肯尼亚人口的10%。但是，在肯尼亚赢得的长跑荣誉中，这个群体占了75%。
That number is impressive enough, in view of the degree to which Kenya now dominates the sport, but looked at another way, the figures are even more remarkable: over the past 10 years, athletes from this small tribe have won close to 40% of all the biggest international honors available in men’s distance running.
考虑到目前肯尼亚在这项运动中的统治地位，这个数字已足够引人注目，但是从另一个角度看的话，这个数字显得更加出类拔萃：在过去的十年里，从这个小部落里走出来的运动员赢得了男子长跑界所有大型国际性荣誉的40%。
Most of this article will be a discussion of various notions that have been advanced to account for this phenomenon, but before going into that I want to throw out a few more numbers to show what I mean by that 40% figure. First, I want to make it clear that I am talking about men’s distance running. Kalenjin women – African women in general – have lagged behind their male counterparts for reasons I am afraid I will not have time to get into.
本文大部分篇幅都会用来讨论那些为解释这一现象而提出的各种观点，但是在此之前，我想要列出更多数字，以表明我想通过40%这个数据表达的意思。首先需要明确的是，我讨论的只是男子长跑。卡伦津女性——以及总体而言的非洲女性——在这方面落后于她们的男性同胞。至于其原因，恐怕我没有时间去一探究竟。
Now, the Kalenjin excel in varying degrees in all three of distance running’s disciplines: cross country, road racing and track. I will take them one at a time, starting with cross country.
现在，卡伦津人在三种长跑项目中都不同程度地处于领先地位，他们分别是越野跑、公路跑和径赛。我会逐一对他们进行分析，首先说越野跑。
Three weeks ago, the annual World Cross Country Championships were held in Turin. I do not know how much coverage the press here gave the event, but from an international perspective, the World Cross Country Championships are a big deal.
三周以前，国际田联年度世界越野锦标赛在意大利都灵举行。我不知道当地新闻界给了这个活动多少报道，但是从国际视角来看，这是一次大事件。
In fact, it is often said that the men’s championship is the toughest of all foot races to win because it attracts the world’s best at distances from the mile to the marathon, and each country can enter not just three runners, but nine.
事实上，这项赛事的男子冠军通常被认为是所有跑步比赛中最难赢得的。因为它吸引了全世界最好的中长跑运动员，从英里跑到马拉松。并且，每个国家能入选的选手不是三名，而是九名。
In this year’s men’s race there were 280 competitors from 60 different countries, most of them hoping somehow to upset the Kenyan juggernaut, but in the end, out of those 280 runners, five of the first seven to finish were Kenyans – and four of those five were Kalenjin.
今年的男子比赛共有来自60个不同国家的280名选手，他们当中的绝大多数都希望能多多少少打破一点肯尼亚人的主宰格局，但是最终，前七名中五人是肯尼亚人，而这五人中有四人是卡伦津人。
Remarkable as it may seem, this result is fairly typical. Since 1986, when Kenya began taking these championships seriously, the country has yet to lose the men’s team race. And Kalenjin athletes have made up fully three quarters of the scoring runners on those 12 winning Kenyan teams.
这看起来可能挺惹人注目，但是这个结果其实很典型。自从1986年肯尼亚真正参与这些锦标赛开始，该国在男子组团体赛中战无不胜。12支获胜的肯尼亚队伍中，取得名次的运动员里，卡伦津运动员足足占了四分之三。
In fact, in eight of the 12 winning years, if only the Kalenjin runners had competed, they would still have taken the team title. What is more, of the 36 individual medals awarded in the men’s competition in those 12 years, Kalenjin runners have won 18, precisely half the total.
事实上，在12个取胜年头中的8个，即使只有卡伦津运动员参加了比赛，他们仍会把团体冠军拿下。此外，在这12年中，男子比赛的36块个人奖牌，卡伦津人拿走了18块，刚好占了一半。
In road racing, Kalenjin participation has been comparatively limited until recent years, but they have had a perceptible impact at the top – the unofficial “world best” times for the standard road race distances.
直到近几年之前，卡伦津选手在公路赛上的参与度相对有限，但是他们对比赛顶端的影响是显而易见的——即对标准公路赛的非官方“世界最佳”成绩的影响。
Kalenjin men own the world bests at five of the eight commonly run distances shorter than the marathon, and in two of the remaining three, Kalenjin runners have bettered the listed world best while running in longer races. As for the marathon itself, a Kalenjin claims history’s second fastest time – 2 hours, 7 minutes, 2 seconds – and Kalenjin runners have won the Boston Marathon, the world’s oldest and most remunerative road race, four times since 1988.
在八项距离小于马拉松的常规项目中，卡伦津人拥有其中五项的世界最好成绩，另外三项中的两项，卡伦津人在进行更长距离的比赛时刷新了其既有世界纪录。至于马拉松，一个卡伦津人跑出了世界第二好成绩——两小时七分两秒，而且，自1988年以来，卡伦津人赢得了四次波士顿马拉松赛，它是世界上历史最悠久、奖金最丰厚的公路赛。
In fact, at last year’s Centennial Boston Marathon, the richest road race in history, Kalenjin runners took the first two places, three of the top five, five of the top eight and 12 of the top 18.
事实上，去年，在有史以来奖金最高的公路赛——百年波士顿马拉松赛上，卡伦津运动员取得了冠亚军，而且在前五名里占据了三席，在前八名里占据了五席，在前十八名里占据了十二席。
But nowhere in road racing do Kalenjin achievements compare with the record they have built up in the more exacting discipline of track. Here we are talking about distances from 800 meters to 10,000 meters, and success in these events is measured mainly in two ways: medals and times.
但是，与卡伦津人在要求更严格的径赛中取得的成就相比，他们的公路赛成绩不值一提。这里我们说的是从800米到10000米的比赛，在这些赛事中，成就主要是从两方面来衡量：奖牌数和用时。
I will start with medals. First, Olympic medals.Kalenjin distance runners have won 26, eight of them gold. The only meaningful numbers to compare this to are medals won in men’s distance events by whole countries during approximately the same period.
我先说奖牌数。首先是奥运奖牌，卡伦津人一共获得了26块，其中8块是金牌。唯一能和这个数据进行有意义比较的，是同期其他国家在男子长跑项目上整国所获得的奖牌数。
If we begin in 1964, the first Olympics to which Kenya sent more than a token contingent, and if we exclude the two Olympics that Kenya boycotted – 1976 and 1980 – the nearest national total is the 10 medals won by the U.S. Next, I am happy to tell you, is Britain, with eight. Fourth place, seven medals, is a tie between Morocco and non-Kalenjin Kenya.
如果我们从1964年算起（这一年开始肯尼亚不像过去那样只派出了一支象征性的代表队参加奥运会），再除去1976和1980这两届肯尼亚所抵制的奥运会的话，奖牌总数与卡伦津人最接近的国家是美国，它取得了10块奖牌。我很乐意告诉你，下一位是英国，获得了8块奖牌。摩洛哥和去除卡伦津人后的肯尼亚并列第四，分获7块奖牌。
Here are the leading national totals, medals and gold medals. As you can see, in the Olympics in which they have fully participated, Kalenjin distance men have won nearly three times as many medals and three times as many golds as rivals from any whole country.
以下是在奖牌和金牌数处于领先地位的国家。你可以看到，在卡伦津人正式参与的奥运会上，他们的男子长跑选手获得的奖牌数和金牌数都是其他任何国家一整国的竞争者所获数量的近三倍。
MEDALS, MEN’S TRACK EVENTS 800m TO 10,000m
奖牌数，男子径赛项目800米到10,000米 Olympic Games, 1964-96 (excluding boycotted Games of 1976 & 1980)
奥运会，1964-96（除遭到抵制的1976届和1980届） All Medals
奖牌数 Gold
金牌数 Kalenjin 卡伦津 26 8 USA 美国 10 3 GB 英国 8 1 Non-Kalenjin Kenya 非卡伦津肯尼亚 7 4 Morocco 摩洛哥 7 3 Germany (East & West) 德国（东德和西德） 6 1 Ethiopia 埃塞俄比亚 5 1 Finland 芬兰 4 3 New Zealand 新西兰 4 2 Tunisia 突尼斯 4 1 Until 1983, the Olympics were the only worldwide open competition in track and field. But in that year the sport’s governing body introduced the Athletics World Championships, which provide Olympic-level competition without the Olympics’ political baggage.
1983年以前，奥运会是仅有的世界性田径公开赛。但是在1983年，该项运动的管理组织引入了世界田径锦标赛，这项赛事既能提供奥林匹克级别的比赛，又没有奥运会的政治包袱。
Kenya has participated in each of the five World Championships so far, and Kalenjin distance men have built a record much like the one they have established in the Olympics: 17 medals and nine golds. The countries that come closest are Germany (East plus West), with eight medals and two golds, Morocco with seven medals and one gold, and non-Kalenjin Kenya, with five and three.
肯尼亚迄今为止参与了五次世界田径锦标赛，卡伦津男子长跑选手取得了和在奥运会一样瞩目的成绩：17块奖牌和9块金牌。成绩和他们最为接近的国家有德国（东德和西德），8块奖牌，2块金牌；摩洛哥，7块奖牌，1块金牌；非卡伦津肯尼亚，5块奖牌，3块金牌。
If we concentrate on more recent worldwide competition – say, in the last 10 years – the medal totals become altogether lopsided. In three Olympics and three World Championships, Kalenjin distance runners have won 31 medals and 12 golds in men’s track events – 34% and 40%, respectively, of the available totals.
如果我们把目光聚焦到最近的世界级赛事上，比如说最近十年，奖牌总数完全是一边倒的情况。在三届奥运会和三届世锦赛上，卡伦津长跑选手在男子径赛项目上赢得了31块奖牌和12块金牌，分别占总数的34%和40%。
The nearest whole countries are Morocco with 11 medals and Algeria with four golds (all won by NoureddineMorceli), each total equal to about one-third that of the single Kenyan tribe. So much for medals.
与他们的成绩最接近的国家是获得11块奖牌的摩洛哥和获得4块金牌（均由Noureddine Morceli赢得）的阿尔及利亚，这些成绩相当于肯尼亚一个部落（卡伦津）取得的大约三分之一。关于奖牌的问题先说到这里。
The other gauges of success on the track involve recorded times. The most comprehensive of these are what are called all-time lists, which set out in order the top performers in the whole history of an event, strictly on the basis of their best recorded times. As you might expect, Kalenjin runners are well represented. Here are the number of Kalenjin appearing in the all-time lists for the five Olympic distance events at three different levels–top 10, top 20 and top 50:
径赛成绩好的另一个标准是时间记录。其中最全面的被叫做全时间排名，这个表严格按照最好成绩的顺序列出了一个项目历史上所有的顶尖选手。如你所料，卡伦津选手在这个表上大放异彩。这里列出了卡伦津人在五个奥运会长跑项目中在全时间排名上出现的次数，分为三个档次，前十、前二十和前五十：
NUMBER OF KALENJIN IN MEN’S ALL-TIME LISTS
卡伦津人在男子全时间排名上出现的次数 Event
项目 Number of Kalenjin
卡伦津出现人次 Top 10
前十 Top 20
前二十 Top 50
前五十 800 2 7 13 1500 0 4 13 5,000 3 6 13 10,000 5 7 13 3,000米障碍赛 9 13 20 19⁄50 37⁄100 72⁄250 38% 37% 29% If we tally up these figures for all five events, we find that members of the tribe make up 38% of the all-time top 10, 37% of the top 20 and 29% of the top 50. But even these numbers do not quite convey Kalenjin runners’enormous recent impact.
如果我们把所有五个项目的数据加总，会发现这个部落的成员占据了全时间序列列表前十名的38%，前二十名的37%，前五十名的29%。但是，甚至这些数字都不能很好地展现卡伦津长跑运动员近年来所带来的巨大影响。
That shows up more clearly in annual rankings from the last several years. These are also based solely on recorded times. Here are the numbers of Kalenjin in the top 10 in the five years from 1992 to ’96:
这些影响在最近几年的年度排名上得以更好地体现。这些排名也是完全基于时间记录。这里列出了卡伦津人在1992到1996年这五年间占据前十名的人数：
NUMBER OF KALENJIN IN ANNUAL TOP TEN LISTS
年度前十排名表中的卡伦津人 Event
项目 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 800 4 5 4 5 5 1500 4 2 2 2 6 5,000 3 3 3 5 3 10,000 2 4 3 4 5 3,000米障碍赛 7 4 6 9 9 20 18 18 25 28 40% 36% 36% 50% 56% Another quick tally reveals that in the last five years Kalenjin runners occupied 43.6% of the top ten spots in the five men’s endurance events. Take this together with their 38% of the top-ten spots on the all-time lists for those events, and the 34% of all Olympic and World Championship medals they have won in those events since 1988. Then throw in their collection of world bests in road racing and the incredible 50% of all men’s medals that they have won at the World Cross Country Championships since 1986, and you can boil this down to the generalization I made at the beginning: in recent years, of the biggest worldwide honors available in men’s distance running, Kalenjin runners have won something like 40%.
又一个简单的加总显示，在最近五年里，卡伦津选手占据了五个男子耐力项目前十名的43.6%。把这个数据加上其全时间排名中这些项目前十名的比例——38%，再加上自从1988年以来他们在这些项目上获得的奥运会和世锦赛奖牌的比例——34%，再算上他们在公路跑中所获得的世界纪录，以及自1986年以来获得的国际田联世界越野锦标赛的男子奖牌总数——不可思议的50%，然后，你就能得出我在文章开头所给出的概括：近些年，卡伦津跑步运动员获得了世界上所有男子长跑重量级荣誉的大约40%。
I contend that this record marks the greatest geographical concentration of achievement in the annals of sport, and if we had time I would welcome arguments to the contrary, but for now, let us look at what makes these people so good. There has been a fair amount of published speculation on this subject. I am going to look at a few of these ideas, and then I am going to offer a couple of suggestions of my own.
我坚信这个记录是运动史上最大规模的成就地理集中现象。如果有时间的话我很欢迎有人提出反对意见，但是现在，让我们看看是什么让这些人的表现如此优异。关于这个问题已经发表过很多观点。我将分析其中一部分，然后提出一些我自己的看法。
Altitude is most people’s first thought, and with reason. 2,000 meter elevations are common in Kalenjin country, and leading a vigorous outdoor life in the thin air at such altitudes has been shown to help create the high aerobic capacity that is vital to distance running success.
海拔是多数人首先想到的解释，不无道理。海拔2000米在卡伦津是非常普遍的，在这种海拔高、空气稀薄的环境下过一种十分活跃的户外生活，被证实有助于增强供氧能力，这种能力对于长跑来说至关重要。
Every athletics fan has heard stories of runners’ childhoods in these highlands spent covering mile upon mile chasing cattle or – to cite the contemporary chestnut – jogging back and forth to school.
每一个田径迷都听过流传于坊间的关于这些长跑选手在高地度过童年的轶事，故事里他们跑了一英里又一英里去追赶牛群，或者是在学校和家之间来回奔波，后者已成为一种当代的老调。
The question is, why have these circumstances been so much more helpful to the Kalenjin than to other high-altitude dwellers? Where are the world-class athletes from Nepal, Peru and Lesotho? And what about elsewhere in Kenya? A dozen tribes around the country lead similar lives at comparable altitudes and have produced no notable runners.
问题是，为什么这些环境对卡伦津人的影响要远远大于其他高海拔地区的居民呢？尼泊尔、秘鲁和莱索托的世界级运动员在哪呢？肯尼亚其他地区的世界级运动员又在哪呢？该国境内有许多部落都在近似海拔过着相似的生活，但是没有诞生任何著名长跑运动员。
How about diet? When I first wrote about Kalenjin runners 20 years ago, nutritional theories of the time ascribed benefits to the relatively high proportion of protein in their diet (from cow’s milk and blood) compared with the diets of other African peoples.
那么饮食呢？20年前，当我第一次撰写有关卡伦津长跑运动员的文章时，当时的营养学理论认为，较之其他非洲人的饮食，卡伦津人饮食中相对较高的蛋白质含量（来自牛奶和牛血）给他们带来了优势。
Actually, by Western standards, Kalenjin protein intake was pretty low – lower still among mess-fed soldiers and school boys,from whose ranks most of the athletes come.
事实上，按照西方标准，卡伦津人的蛋白质摄入非常低。吃大食堂的军人和学生比一般人又要更低，而大部分运动员来自这群体。
These days, however, conventional dietary wisdom touts “complex carbohydrates,” and Kenyans’ starchy fare has been cited as a possible source of runners’ strength in several recent TV programs and articles in the consumer press. There is no question that the Kalenjin do live on a starchy diet. But then so do most Third World peoples. Starch, after all, is what subsistence farmers produce.
然而，最近，传统营养学已在宣扬“复合碳水化合物”，肯尼亚人的高淀粉饮食也被近期一些电视节目和消费者杂志文章认为可能是跑步运动员的力量之源。诚然，卡伦津人的饮食确实以淀粉类为主，但是，第三世界的人民绝大多数都是这样。不管怎么说，勉强糊口的农民也只能生产淀粉类食物。
Material incentives are the time-honored explanation for ethnic disproportion in professional sports – the classic examples in my country being the succession of Irish, Italian, Black and Latino boxers from the wrong side of the tracks. By this line of thinking, the downtrodden groups’ inordinate success results from hordes of boys taking up boxing because they see it as an escape route from their desperate poverty.
物质激励是对专业运动员中种族比例不均衡的一个历史悠久的解释——在我国，典型的例子是一系列贫民窟出身的爱尔兰裔、意大利裔、非裔和拉丁裔拳击手。按照这种思路，这些受压迫群体的极度成功源自大批小伙子把练习拳击当作逃离极端贫困的一条出路。
The same reasoning is often applied to running in Kenya today. The availability, first of U.S. college scholarships and now prize money and appearance fees, has had a demonstrable effect in boosting interest and participation throughout the country. But the Kalenjin were turning out world-class runners long before such rewards became available, and they continue to turn out three times as many as the rest of Kenya’s tribes combined, incentives or no incentives.
同样的推理现在也经常被安在肯尼亚的长跑成就上。起先是可以获得美国的大学奖学金，现在是可以获得奖金和出场费，这对于激发全国性的兴趣和参与有着显而易见的影响。但是卡伦津人早在这些奖励出现之前就诞生了许多世界级的长跑选手，并且无论有没有物质激励，它现在产出的优秀长跑运动运数量仍是其他肯尼亚部落总和的三倍。
Clearly, none of these factors is a sufficient explanation for Kalenjin success, but neither can they be dismissed out of hand. Altitude by itself, for example, does not account for much. But when you combine 2,000 meter elevations with equatorial latitudes, you get an ideal climate for sustained outdoor activity – comfortably warm days, cool nights, low humidity.
显然，这些因素都不能充分解释卡伦津人的成功，但也没有一条能被排除在外。举例来说，单就海拔而言，它并没有起太大作用，但是当你把2000米的海拔高度与赤道纬度相结合，就得到了持续户外活动的理想气候——温暖舒适的白天、凉爽的夜晚、较低的湿度。
That, together with altitude’s aerobic benefits, begins to show why Kenya’s highlands as a whole are an ideal home for distance running. And it is worth pointing out that while about a quarter of Kenya’s population lives in comparatively sultry conditions at altitudes below 1,200 meters, every one of the country’s world class runners is a highlander.
这和高海拔对供氧能力的益处结合在一起，初步解释了为什么整个肯尼亚高地地区是长跑运动员的理想家园。值得指出的是，尽管有大约四分之一的肯尼亚人生活在海拔低于1200米，且相对闷热的环境里，但这个国家的每一个世界级长跑运动员都是高地人。
Diet, too, has some significance, though I doubt if it has much to do with complex carbohydrates. Rather, it is that, like most Kenyans, and unlike many of the world’s poor, the Kalenjin have enough to eat. The simple fact that Western Kenya has a lot of excellent farm land and a reliable food supply sets the country apart from many places that might otherwise be breeding grounds for runners.
饮食同样具有一些重要的影响，尽管我对复合碳水化合物是否真有那么大的影响持怀疑态度。其实，就像大部分肯尼亚人一样，卡伦津人跟世界上其他穷人不同，他们有足够的食物。一个简单的事实就是肯尼亚西部有许多非常好的农田，有稳定的食物供给，使得这个国家在众多可能成为长跑运动员温床的国家中独树一帜。
That brings me back to poverty, which is also an important factor, but not quite in the clichéd sense of an oppressively grim environment that drives young men to train maniacally as they dream of escape. Rural western Kenya, where almost all the runners come from, is a far cry from a teeming slum or a grimy coal field. It is a land of beautiful green hills, not unlike Somerset or Wiltshire.
这使我回到对贫穷问题的关注。贫穷也是一个重要的因素，但是我想说的不是诸如残酷的环境让年轻人期盼着逃离这个地方而狂热地训练这种陈词滥调。西肯尼亚的农村地区，也就是几乎所有长跑运动员的家乡，是一个和拥挤的贫民窟或者肮脏的煤矿相去甚远的地方。这片土地遍布美丽的绿色山丘，和萨默塞特郡或威尔特郡倒是挺像。
And compared with other African countries, Kenya is fairly well supplied with basic necessities. Malnutrition is rare, infant mortality is among the lowest in Africa, life expectancy and literacy among the highest. More than 85% of all children attend at least a few years of primary school. And the country has been able to support the institutions – schools, uniformed services – that provide a fairly solid athletic infrastructure. So Kenya is at least prosperous enough to provide athletic opportunities.
与其他非洲国家相比，肯尼亚在基本生活必需品方面供给良好。营养不良很少见，婴儿死亡率是非洲最低的，预期寿命和识字率是非洲最高的。超过85%的儿童至少能上几年小学。而且，这个国家能够供养学校和各种公共服务机构，这为运动员的出现提供了相当雄厚的基础。因此肯尼亚的繁荣程度至少足够支撑体育发展机会。
Yet the people are poor, and unemployment is high. Kenya’s per capita Gross Domestic Product is about $1,200 a year, less than 1/20th the figure of a prosperous Western country. This means that to the average Kenyan, even the meager winnings brought in by most professional or semiprofessional runners look pretty lavish.
然而，肯尼亚人生活贫困，失业率高。肯尼亚人均国内生产总值大约是1200美元，不足西方富裕国家的1/20。这意味着对于普通肯尼亚人来说，绝大多数职业或半职业长跑运动员再微不足道的比赛奖金也是相当丰厚的。
The prospect of earning, say, $10,000 a year as a second- or third-rank road racer is a powerful incentive, and in view of the hundreds of Kenyans now making that kind of money, not an unrealistic ambition. Someone who thinks he has potential as a runner might quite reasonably devote a year or two to intensive training in the hope of attracting the attention of an agent and landing an invitation to a foreign road race or track meet.
比如，做一个二流或者三流的长跑运动员，预期年收入10000美元，是一种相当强的激励，而且现在就有数百肯尼亚运动员能挣到这样的收入，这样看来，这至少不是一个不切实际的野心。那些认为自己有当长跑运动员天赋的人，可能会自然而然地实施一两年的大强度训练，希望获得经纪人的注意，然后被邀请参加国外的公路赛或者田径运动会。
Still, while there is something in each of these – altitude, diet, poverty – that helps explain the phenomenon of Kenyan running as a whole, none of them begins to account for the hugely disproportionate success of the Kalenjin. For that, we have to look more closely at circumstances unique to the tribe.
然而，尽管海拔、饮食、贫穷这三个因素都对解释肯尼亚全国的长跑奇迹有所帮助，但是其中任何一个都不足以解释卡伦津人在这一成就中所占的奇高比例。为此，我们必须更详尽地观察这个部落的所处环境的独特之处。
An obvious thought is that the Kalenjin might be endowed with some sort of collective genetic gift. This is touchy stuff, of course, and there is nothing like replicable scientific data to support the idea. But the prima facie case for a genetic explanation makes some sense: the Kalenjin marry mainly among themselves; they have lived for centuries at altitudes of 2,000 meters or more; and, at least by tradition, they spend their days chasing up and down hills after livestock. So it is not unreasonable to suggest that over time some sort of genetic adaptation has taken place that has turned out to be helpful in competitive distance running.
一个容易想到的观点是，卡伦津人可能天生就具有某种集体性的遗传优势。当然，这是个敏感话题，而且目前还没有可复现的科学数据来支持这个观点。但是遗传解释初看起来确实有一定合理性：卡伦津人主要是族内通婚；他们已经在海拔2000米或更高的地方生存了几个世纪；并且至少从传统上来说，他们成天在山丘上跑上跑下，追逐牲畜。所以，随着时间推移，发生了某种有助于竞争性长跑项目表现的遗传适应，这样的说法并非没有道理。
This notion gets some flimsy support from the fact that linguistic data link the Kalenjin to tribes elsewhere in East Africa that have turned out a majority of their countries’ world class runners: these groups, all of them historically pastoral as opposed to agricultural, include the Oromo in Ethiopia, the Iraqw and Barabaig in Tanzania and the Tutsi in Burundi. There is a temptation to imagine a race of lean, cattle-herding uebermenschen wandering up and down the Rift Valley.
这种观点得到了一些语言学资料的支持，但不是特别牢靠。这些资料显示，卡伦津人和东非其它出现过许多世界级长跑选手的部落有关联：这些群体历史上以畜牧而非农业为生，包括埃塞俄比亚的奥罗莫人，坦桑尼亚的伊拉奎人和巴拉拜格人，以及布隆迪的图西人。人们不禁会想象出一个由精壮的牧牛超人组成的种族上下漫游于东非大裂谷的景象。
What I find more intriguing, however, is the possibility that some of these peoples’ customs might have functioned indirectly as genetic selection mechanisms favoring strong runners. I am thinking specifically of the practice of cattle theft – euphemistically known as cattle raiding. It was common to all these pastoral peoples, but in Kenya, at least, the Kalenjin were it is foremost practitioners. Of course they did not regard it as theft; they were merely repossessing cattle that were theirs by divine right and happened to have fallen into other hands.
然而，让我感觉更奇妙的是，这些民族的某些习俗可能间接地提供了有利于优秀长跑选手的基因选择机制。我想到的是偷牲畜行为——委婉地说就是牲畜突袭。对于这些畜牧民族来说这是件很寻常的事情，但是至少在肯尼亚，卡伦津人是最主要的从事此道者。当然他们不认为这是盗窃；他们只是拿回上天赋予他们的却又碰巧落入他人之手的牲畜。
Never mind that those into whose hands the cattle had fallen often felt the same way. Anyway, Kalenjin raids often called for treks of more than 100 miles to capture livestock and drive them home before their former owners could catch up. The better a young man was at raiding – in large part, a function of his speed and endurance – the more cattle he accumulated.
那些手里碰巧捡到牲畜的人也是这么想的，但是此处不必考虑这一点。不管怎么说，卡伦津式的突袭经常需要跋涉100英里以上，来抓住牲畜并且在前任主人追上之前把牲畜赶回家。一个年轻人越是善于“突袭”，他能积累的牲畜就越多，而在突袭中很大程度上就是他的速度和耐力在起作用。
And since cattle were what a prospective husband needed to pay for a bride, the more a young man had, the more wives he could buy, and the more children he was likely to father. It is not hard to imagine that such a reproductive advantage might cause a significant shift in a group’s genetic makeup over the course of a few centuries.
而且，牲畜就是未来新郎需要支付给新娘的聘礼，因此一个年轻人拥有的牲畜越多，他能买下的妻子也就越多，进而就能有更多的孩子。不难想象，在数百年的时间里，这种生殖优势可能使一个种群的基因组成发生巨大变化。
Much as I enjoy this sort of speculation, however, a different kind of data is needed to substantiate anything approaching a scientific genetic theory, and so far none exists.
尽管我对这种推测乐在其中，但是我们需要其他类型的数据来证实这种现象可以用科学的遗传理论来解释，不过迄今为止这种数据并不存在。
The most rigorous work to date has been done by the Swedish exercise physiologist Bengt Saltin, who took a team of researchers to western Kenya in 1990 and conducted elaborate treadmill tests and muscle biopsies on several dozen Kenyan men, all of whom happened to be Kalenjin.
目前最为严谨的实验是由瑞典运动生理学家Bengt Saltin于1990年带领一队研究人员在西肯尼亚实施的。实验对几十个肯尼亚男子进行了细致的跑步机上运动测试和肌肉活检，而这些实验对象恰巧都是卡伦津人。
He discovered unusual features in his subjects’ muscle tissue and response to physical exertion, but he concluded that these were probably the result of the Kenyans’ lifetime of vigorous activity at altitude.
他发现，实验对象的肌肉组织和对体能消耗的反应模式有一些非同寻常的特征，但他认为这些很可能是肯尼亚人终生都在高海拔地区剧烈活动的结果。
One of his findings does suggest the possibility that the Kalenjin evince uncommon “trainability” – the capacity to increase aerobic efficiency with training – and research by the Canadian geneticist Claude Bouchard has shown this trait to be largely hereditary.
他的调查结果之一确实表明，卡伦津人展现出了非同寻常的“可训练性” ——即能通过训练提升供氧能力。同时，加拿大遗传学家Claude Bouchard的研究则表明，这种特征很大程度上来自遗传。
Before drawing any firm conclusions about Kalenjin gifts, however, further studies would have to determine that trainability – or any other heritable trait – was truly instrumental in distance running success and that ordinary Kalenjin exhibit the trait to an unusual degree.
然而，在对卡伦津人的天赋作出任何确切结论之前，需要进一步研究以便确定这种可训练性或者任何其他遗传特性真的在长跑的成功方面起了作用，而且普通卡伦津人身上这一特征也表现出了已不同寻常的水平。
Without such evidence, notions of Kalenjin genetic superiority rest onanecdotal data – and as you might imagine, there is an abundance of that, some of it surprisingly persuasive. My favorite data of this sort are a dozen brief “case studies” I have collected of Kalenjin young men in their 20s who had never thought of themselves as runners at all until they wound up in circumstances that more or less obliged them to take up the sport.
没有这种证据佐证，卡伦津人有基因优势这种说法就只是停留在坊间传闻罢了——你可能会觉得，这种传闻还挺多的，一些还非常有说服力。这种类型的资料中，我最喜欢的是我收集的十几个简短个案研究。这些研究的主要对象是一些二十多岁的卡伦津年轻人，在多多少少受境况所迫而参与这项运动之前，他们从没想过自己能是长跑运动员。
Most often this was because friends who were runners helped them to secure American track scholarships under false pretenses, and once on campus,the non-runners had to run in order to stay. In each case, what happened when they started training is quite remarkable. I will give one example.
大多数情况都是，他们的跑步运动员朋友通过作假的手段帮他们拿到了美国的径赛运动员奖学金，一旦他们进入校园，为了留在学校，这些非运动员不得不硬着头皮开始跑步。在每个案例中，当他们开始训练之后，结果都十分优秀。我在这里举个例子。
Paul Rotich is the son of a prosperous Kalenjin farmer. The father wanted his son to go to college in the U.S., and in 1988, when Paul was 22, he was packed off to South Plains Junior College in Texas, where there were several other Kalenjin already enrolled, all of them on track scholarships.
Paul Rotich是一个富裕的卡伦津农民的儿子，这位父亲想要让他的儿子去美国念大学。1988年，当Paul 22岁时，他被送到了位于德克萨斯的南方平原专科学校。当时已经有其他一些卡伦津人入读这所学校，都拿着径赛运动员奖学金。
Rotich, however, went with no scholarship but with $10,000 his father had managed to collect, a sum that should have been plenty to pay his tuition, room and board for two years. By the end of the first year, though, Paul found that he had spent $8,000, and he realized he had to do something to get himself through the next year.
然而，Rotich去的时候没有奖学金，而是带着他父亲筹集到的10,000美元。这笔钱本该足够负担他两年的学费和食宿费。但是第一年结束的时候，Paul发现他已经花了8000美元，他意识到他必须做点什么来让他度过下一年。
Under the circumstances, the first thing that came to mind was a track scholarship. Trouble was, he had never run a race in his life, and he was fat – 85 kilos (13 and 1⁄2 stone) at a height of 1.73 meters (5 ft. 8 in.). He began training – running at night because he was embarrassed to be seen lumbering around the track. In the autumn hemanaged to make the cross-country team, and by the end of the season he finished in the top 50 in the national junior college championships.
在这种情况下，他能想到的第一件就是径赛运动员奖学金。问题是他一生中从未参加过赛跑，而且他很胖——身高1.73米（5英尺8寸），体重85公斤（13.5英石）。他开始实施训练，他通常在晚上跑步，因为羞于让人看到他在跑道上笨拙的姿态。秋天的时候他设法加入了越野跑队，赛季临近尾声时他进入了全国专科学校锦标赛前50名。
But that was just the beginning. He landed a track scholarship – to nearby Lubbock Christian University – and over the next two years he earned “All- American” honors 10 times in cross country and various track events. When he went back to Kenya and told his cousin what he had done, the cousin replied, “So, it is true. If you can run, any Kalenjin can run.”
但这还只是个开始。他得到了径赛运动员奖学金，并进入了附近的拉伯克基督教大学。在随后的两年中，他还在越野赛和其他径赛项目上取得了10次“全美最佳”的荣誉。当他回到肯尼亚，把他的事迹告诉他堂兄之后，他堂兄说：“所以，这都是真的。要是你都能跑，那任何卡伦津人就都能跑。”
It may be true, and if it is, it may be because of some as yet unspecified genetic endowment. But even if the Kalenjinare blessed with an innate physical gift, that does not account for their astonishing record in major championships. To succeed in those circumstances, an athlete must not only be able to run fast, but to run fastest when it matters most. And in this, the ability to rise to the occasion, to perform under pressure, the Kalenjinare supreme.
这可能是真的，而且如果真是这样的话，可能是因为某些尚未查清的遗传天赋。但是即使卡伦津人被赐予了这种先天身体优势，这也不能解释他们在重大比赛中的惊人记录。想要在这些比赛中取得胜利，运动员必须不仅能跑得快，还需要在重要时刻能发挥出最佳成绩。在这方面，应对自如的能力、在压力之下的表现，卡伦津人都是其中的佼佼者。
I have tried to quantify this ability by evaluating performances in the most pressure-laden of all athletic events, the Olympic Games, and to compare Kalenjin performances with those of their rivals in the distance events. The aim was to rate performances not just in terms of medals or finishing places but in comparison to each athlete’s pre-Olympic personal best.
奥运会是所有体育赛事中压力最大的比赛，我曾试着通过评估运动员在其中的表现来量化这种能力，并且把卡伦津人在长跑项目中的表现和其竞争对手进行比较。这样做的目的是，不仅仅通过奖牌数或者最终排名来评估他们的表现，而是通过与每位运动员奥运会前个人最好成绩进行对比来评估。
The base line, 0, was what I judged to be a respectable but undistinguished Olympic performance: not getting a medal, not reaching the final but coming close – within half a percent – of the pre-Olympic PB. In the 1500 meters, that means within about a second. I gave positive points for reaching the final, finishing in the top eight and for winning medals, and also for improving a personal best by various percentages, negative points for failing to finish and for falling short of a personal best by various percentages. Here is a summary of the scoring system:
基准线为0，表示我认为该运动员在奥运会上的表现值得尊敬但不出众：没能获得奖牌，没有进入决赛，但是成绩和参加奥运会之前的个人最好成绩接近——相差0.5%以内。在1500米的比赛中，这意味着不到一秒。进入决赛、得到前八名、赢得奖牌以及提升了个人最好成绩的（无论多少百分点）我都会给予正分；没能完成比赛、未能达到个人最佳成绩的（无论多少百分点）我都会给负分。以下是这个打分系统的概要：
PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE – Point System
压力下的表现——积分系统 Base line: 0 = <0.5% slower than pre-Olympic PB, not finalist, not medalist.
基准线：0分标准：参赛成绩较之参加奥运会之前个人最佳成绩降幅不大于0.5%，未进入决赛，未获得奖牌 Positive points:
正分项 +1 for reaching final
进入决赛 +1 +1 for PR by <1 %
超过个人记录小于1% +1 +2 for reaching top eight
进入前八 +2 +2 for PR by >1 % but <2 %…etc.
超过个人记录大于1%小于2% +2以此类推 +3 for bronze
获得铜牌 +3 +1 additional for PR in final
在决赛破个人记录额外+1 +4 for silver
获得银牌 +4 +1 additional for OR (no WRs in sample)
破奥运记录额外+1（没有世界纪录样本） +6 for gold
获得金牌 +6 Negative points for times slower than pre-Olympic PB by >0.5% (e.g. — 1 for time >0.5% but <1% below PB; —2 for time >1 % but <2 % below PB, etc.)
负分是给予较之参加奥运会之前的个人最佳成绩下降幅度大于0.5%的比赛成绩（例如降幅大于0.5%小于1%计负一分，大于1%小于2%计负二分，等等）
I evaluated every performance of every Kenyan in men’s track events from 800 m to 10,000 m, for every Olympics from 1964 to 1996, and I did the same for the two countries with the next best records in terms of medals, the U.S. and Britain. I paid special attention to first Olympic appearances, figuring that’s when the athletes felt the greatest pressure. Here’s a briefrundown of the aggregate scores:
我对每一位肯尼亚男子选手在1964-1996奥运会上从800米到10000米径赛的每一次表现都进行了评估，并且对奖牌榜上紧随肯尼亚之后的两个国家：美国和英国进行了同样的评估。我尤其注意运动员第一次参加奥运会表现，因为我认为这是运动员压力最大的时刻。下列是总分概要：
USA – aggregate score
美国——总分
—107 for 82 men in 104 appearances in 7 OG
七届奥运会82人（男性）出场104次，共负107分
—120 for 75 men in first OG appearances
75人（男性）第一次参加奥运会，共负120分
Avg. per man: —1.30
个人平均分：负1.3
Avg. per man – first appearance: —1.60
奥运首秀个人平均分：负1.6
Avg. per appearance —1.03
出场平均分：负1.03
9 PBs; 7 PBs in finals
9项个人记录；决赛中出现7次个人记录
Great Britain – aggregate score
英国——总分
—95 for 76 men in 92 appearances in 7 OG
七届奥运会76人（男性）出场92次，共负95分
—76 for 67 men in their first OG appearances
67人（男性）第一次参加奥运会，共负76分
Avg. per man: —1.25
个人平均分：负1.25
Avg. per man – first appearance: —1.13
奥运首秀个人平均分：负1.13
Avg. per appearance —1.03
出场平均分：负1.03
6 PBs; 5 PBs in finals
6项个人记录；决赛中出现5次个人记录
Non-Kalenjin Kenya – aggregate score
非卡伦津肯尼亚人——总分
+49 for 18 men in 24 appearances in 7 OG
七届奥运会18人（男性）出场24次，共正49分
+30 for 17 men in first OG appearances.
17人（男性）第一次参加奥运会，共正30分
Avg. per man: +2.72
个人平均分：正1.25
Avg. per man – first appearance: +1.76
奥运首秀个人平均分：正1.13
Avg. per appearance +2.04
出场平均分：正2.04
9 PBs; 7 PBs in finals
9项个人记录；决赛中出现7次个人记录
Kalenjin
卡伦津人——总分
+175 for 41 men in 59 appearances in 7 OG
七届奥运会41人（男性）出场59次，共正175分
+122 for 41 men in first OG appearances.
41人（男性）第一次参加奥运会，共正122分
Avg. per man: +4.27
个人平均分：正4.27
Avg. per man – first appearance: +2.98
奥运首秀个人平均分：正2.98
Avg. per appearance +2.97
出场平均分：正2.97
25 PBs; 15 PBs in finals
25项个人记录；决赛中出现15次个人记录
What accounts for this extraordinary difference? What is it that gives seemingly every Kalenjin runner the ability to summon a supreme effort when it matters most? We tend to think of such emotional strengths as acquired rather than inherited, though of course there’s the possibility that cattle raiding or some other custom might have conferred a reproductive advantage upon, say, individuals who stood firm in crises, and that that faculty was somehow passed on. But I am inclined to believe this ability is the result of conditioning – that the tribe’s austere warrior culture prepares young Kalenjin almost from birth not to quail under pressure.
是什么导致了这种巨大的差异？是什么赐予了几乎每一位卡伦津选手越是重要场合越能唤起最强斗志的能力？我们倾向于认为这种情感力量是习得的而不是天生的，尽管突袭牲畜或者其他一些风俗当然有可能赋予那些临危不倒的人以生殖优势，并且这种能力会以某种方式遗传了下来。但是我倾向于相信这种能力来自于条件作用——这个部落严酷的武士文化让年轻的卡伦津人几乎从出生开始就做好了不向任何压力低头的准备。
The most obvious and probably the most significant set of customs in this regard is the series of escalating physical ordeals each child undergoes while growing up, culminating in circumcision, which marks initiation into adulthood. Circumcision is the central event in the life of every Kalenjin youth, anticipated for years with dread, and suffered with unblinking stoicism under the eyes of watchful elders, who are ready to brand a boy a coward for life if he so much as winces. It is not hard to see how this rite might help develop a capacity to put up with pain, which, of course, is vital in running long races.
最明显且可能最重要的风俗，是每个孩子在成长中都会经历的一系列逐渐加剧的生理折磨，这种折磨在标志着成人生涯开始的割礼中达到顶峰。对于每个肯尼亚年轻人来说，割礼是生命中的核心事件。他们在满怀恐惧地等待多年后，在长者的监视下无声地忍受巨大的痛苦。如果年轻人畏缩的话，这些成年人时刻准备着给他们终生打上懦夫的烙印。不难明白这个仪式是如何帮助他们建立起对于长跑比赛至关重要的对痛苦的忍耐能力的。
But circumcision is far from unique to the Kalenjin. Dozens of societies in Kenya and hundreds elsewhere in Africa use more or less the same operation for more or less the same purpose; in many the rite has much the same significance and is accompanied by comparable community-wide commotion.
但是割礼并非是卡伦津人独有的。许多肯尼亚社群和成百上千的其他非洲社群都或多或少地出于相似目的而采取这个手术。许多情况下这个仪式有相同的重要性，而且会伴有相当程度的全体骚动。
For this reason, I was at first inclined to look beyond circumcision for whatever it was in Kalenjin culture that gave the runners their special strength. I changed my mind after going to a couple of circumcision ceremonies.
出于这个原因，我最初倾向于在割礼之外，从卡伦津文化的其它要素中，去寻找长跑选手的特殊能力来源。但是在参加了几次割礼仪式之后，我改变了这一想法。
I do not have time now to give a detailed account of what I saw, but when I compared it to what I was able to glean about other initiation rites from standard ethnographies and cross-cultural studies, I found what I think are significant differences.
我现在没有时间详述我的见闻，但是当我将之和我能收集到的标准民族志和跨文化研究中记载的成年礼进行比较时，我发现了我认为极为显著的差异。
They are not in kind, but in degree. In general, the Kalenjin rite and the long recovery period that follows are invested with greater secrecy and solemnity, and with greater importance as a means of inculcating standards of behavior. The operation itself is more physically arduous and the sanctions for failure more severe (flinching in fear or pain can result in what amounts to a kind of permanent internal banishment).
这种差异不在于仪式的种类，而在于程度上。总的来说，卡伦津的仪式和随之而来的漫长恢复期被赋予了更多的私密性和庄重性。作为一种行为准则的灌输方式，它有着更重要的意义。手术本身带来的生理痛苦更大，而且对于失败的惩罚更为严重（源于恐惧或疼痛的退缩，可能导致的后果相当于永久的内部放逐）。
Perhaps most important is the pervasive sense among adults, children and initiates that the traits of character tested in the ritual – courage, endurance, determination, restraint – are the ones the tribe values above all, and that to pass the test is to affirm those values, to fail it is to betray them.
也许最重要的是在成人、孩子、以及新青年心中蕴含的普遍观念，即在仪式中所检验的性格特征——勇气、忍耐、决心、克制，是整个部落最珍视的价值。通过测试就是认可这些价值，而失败则意味着背叛。
Thus as the initiates approach the predawn ceremony, they’re quite conscious of bearing the weight not only of their own fears and hopes and those of their family and friends, but also those of the whole community, the tribe and centuries of Kalenjin tradition.
因此，当这些新青年临近这种黎明前的仪式的时候，他们非常清楚地意识到他们背负的不仅仅是自己的恐惧和希望，此外还有家人和朋友的，他们甚至还背负了整个社群，整个部落以及卡伦津数百年传统的恐惧和希望。
A boy who stands up under that kind of pressure at 14 or 15 is unlikely at 25 to be anything but invigorated by the comparatively benign tensions accompanying an Olympic final. And if he was able as a boy to muster the strength to endure the excruciating pain of circumcision, what must he be able to do as a man when faced with nothing more than the aches and fatigue of the closing laps of a tough race.
一个在十四五岁时就承受过这种压力的男孩，在二十五岁面临奥运会决赛的相对良性的压力时，不可能会被击垮，这种压力反而会让他们更加斗志昂扬。而且如果当他是个小男孩的时候，他能调动所有力量忍受割礼的剧痛，那么成年之后当他面临艰难赛事的最后一圈带来的痛苦和疲劳时，他也一定能够度过这一关。
Now, as a final note, since this is a gathering of British sports historians, I would like to bring up another possible reason for Kalenjin success that has to do with a British colonial law enforcement policy. I once had high hopes for this idea, but up to now I have not had much luck finding evidence to support it.
最后，由于这是一本英国运动史学家的文集，我想要提出卡伦津人成功的另一个可能原因，即和英国殖民法律实施政策相关。我曾经对这个观点抱有很大期望，但是至今我还没有发现足够的证据来支持它。
I have talked about cattle raiding. In the early part of the century, it was endemic in Western Kenya, and the colonial administration went to some lengths to stamp it out. Because the Kalenjin were the most frequent offenders, they got more than their share of attention from the British in this regard. Raiders who were caught were jailed, and prisoners were sent out as laborers on public works projects; among these were the leveling and marking out of running tracks. Thus rustling and running seemed to be connected in an odd kind of symbiosis.
我已经谈到过偷牲畜的问题。在本世纪初，这是肯尼亚西部的普遍问题，殖民政府曾想方设法要解决这个问题。因为卡伦津犯罪人数最多，在这方面他们也得到了英国方面高度关注。牲畜盗窃犯一旦被抓就会被送进监狱，囚犯们会被派去建设公共工程。这些工程包括为跑道做水平度测量和画道线。因此偷家畜和跑步似乎以一种古怪的共生方式被联系起来。
This connection was confirmed in a letter I have from a former colonial officer – now dead – who recalled a campaign he conducted in one part of Kalenjin territory in the 1930s, promoting athletics as a surrogate for cattle raiding with a slogan that translates roughly as, “Show your valor in sports and games, not in war.”
这个联系从我收到的一封已故前殖民官员的信中得到了证实。他在信中回忆了他1930年代在卡伦津某地区推行的以体育活动代替偷家畜行为的运动。当时的口号翻译过来大概就是“在运动中展现你的英勇，而不是在战争中。”
So it seemed that the Kalenjin fondness for raiding earned them an extra push from the colonial administration to take up racing instead. But try as I may, I haven’t been able to find any evidence in colonial records that my correspondent’s approach was ever applied throughout Kalenjin country.
所以，卡伦津人钟爱的偷家畜活动似乎发挥了一种助推作用，促使殖民当局推进长跑活动。但是尽管我做出了尝试，我还是没能在殖民纪录里找到任何证据来证明我的通信人提到的方法曾被用于卡伦津全境。
There are lots of references to Kalenjin cattle raiding, some with a detectable note of admiration, but none that mention the promotion of sport as a surrogate. I have looked through some of the literature on sport as a mechanism of social control, and there’s certainly evidence that it was used this way among another Kenyan tribe, the Kikuyu, after the Mau Mau rebellion in the ’50s.
提到卡伦津人偷家畜的地方有很多，有些还是以一种明显可见的钦佩语气，但是那些记录都没有提到把长跑作为替代品推广的做法。我也查阅了一些有关把运动作为社会控制手段的文献，里面有明确的证据表明50年代茅茅叛乱之后，这种方式曾被用于另一个肯尼亚部落——基库尤。
But I have found nothing about the Kalenjin. I have even looked at the encouragement of cricket as a surrogate for ritual warfare among Trobriand Islanders to see if I could in some way argue that this sort of thing was a common policy throughout the Empire. But that argument seemed a little thin.
但是我没找到关于卡伦津的任何此类记录。我甚至查阅了在特罗布里恩群岛中推行板球作为宗教战争替代品的资料，我想试试能否以某种方式来证明这是一项大英帝国通行的政策。但是论据似乎有些单薄。
And in any event, if athletics was encouraged disproportionately among the Kalenjin in the ’30s, the effects of the policy were long delayed: Kalenjin names do not start turning up with any frequency on the rolls of national champions until after World War II, when the tribe began to join the mainstream of rapidly Westernizing Kenya. Still, I am eager to pursue this idea further if anyone here can suggest sources that I may have overlooked on colonial law enforcement or the use of sport as a means of social control.
而且不管怎样，如果30年代确曾在卡伦津地区着力推广，其效果出现的也有些太晚：直到二战后，卡伦津逐渐融入快速西化的肯尼亚主流之后，这个名字才在国家冠军名单上有所体现。尽管如此，如果有人能提供可能被我忽视的有关殖民地法律实施或者是把体育运动当做社会控制手段的信息源，我还是热切地希望能深入研究这个观点。
翻译：黑色枪骑兵
校对：陈小乖（@lion_kittyyyyy) ，沈沉（@你在何地-sxy）
编辑：辉格@whigzhou