There are different types of strength. The man in the red shirt below is Brian Shaw, and he was named “world’s strongest man” four times. Six-foot-six, four hundred pounds of pure beast. The man’s arms are larger than a particularly buff man’s leg — Shaw is a human Clydesdale horse.
And it is true that professional strongmen are overwhelmingly white men. Brian Shaw, Eddie Hall, that Icelandic giant whose name I find near-impossible to spell (Halfthor, I believe?), they’re all white blokes. Yet if you look at the men widely named the greatest boxers of all times? All black faces, and one Asian man (Pacquiao).
So it would seem that when it comes to speed, agility and fighting ability, black and sometimes asian men (Muay Thai and other martial arts come to mind) reign supreme. Whereas when it comes to lifting extraordinarily heavy weights and things like grip strength, white men may be stronger.
I generalize, of course. But if you look at Olympic records you’ll see certain ethnic groups excel at specific events — African athletes tend to dominate speed and endurance events, white athletes tend to dominate swimming and basketball is dominated by black men, although a lot of them seem to be half-white as well.
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