Data from: The symmetry of children’s knees is linked to their adult sprinting speed and their willingness to sprint in a long-term Jamaican study

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卓越，但其成功的内在机制尚未明晰。本研究探讨牙买加儿童的身体对称性——尤其是腿部对称性——与成年后较高短跑速度之间的关联可能性。本研究的队列研究对象为1996年招募的288名乡村儿童，平均年龄为8.2岁（标准差±1 SD=1.7）。研究分别于1996年与2006年，通过三项下肢特征的波动不对称性（fluctuating asymmetry, FA）评估身体对称性，并构建了下肢综合波动不对称性指标（lower body composite FA, Comp lb-FA）。2010年，我们对从原始队列中招募的受试者开展了90米与180米短跑速度测试，最终纳入163名未接受过专业训练的成年人样本。本研究得到如下发现：（1）1996年及2006年测得的较高下肢综合对称性与膝关节对称性，与2010年受试者的短跑用时更短（即速度更快）显著相关；（2）本研究中的短跑受试者样本似乎存在对称性更高的自我选择倾向。综上，牙买加儿童时期较高的膝关节对称性，不仅与成年后优异的短跑能力相关，同时也与个体参与短跑运动的意愿相关。