Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!ucsd!sdcc6!calmasd!jnp
From: jnp@calmasd.GE.COM (John Pantone)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Fat Swimmers
Message-ID: <115@calmasd.GE.COM>
Date: 17 Oct 88 17:46:09 GMT
References: <78300004@p.cs.uiuc.edu> <421@geovision.UUCP>
Organization: GE/Calma, 9805 Scranton Rd., San Diego, CA 92121
Lines: 22
In-reply-to: alastair@geovision.uucp's message of 12 Oct 88 14:21:43 GMT


   In article <78300004@p.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
   [...]
   >I seem to remember reading a table that said world-class marathoners
   >average 8.5% body fat, and swimmers average 12+% bodyfat.  Does
   >someone know the REAL (i.e. researched/verified/published) answer to
   >this question?

The various answers (speculations, most) to this query have, I think,
left out one factor - in the haste to assign cause and effect where
none may exist: Those with a higher body fat percentage are for one or
more reasons more successful at swimming - and less so at marathon
running.  The cause may well have nothing to do with swimming - but
because of this particular percentage of body fat, these people are
successful swimmers.

Don't forget that correlation does not imply cause/effect!

-- 
These opinions are solely mine and in no way reflect those of my employer.  
John M. Pantone @ GE/Calma R&D, 9805 Scranton Rd., San Diego, CA 92121
...{ucbvax|decvax}!sdcsvax!calmasd!jnp   jnp@calmasd.GE.COM   GEnie: J.PANTONE