In “Why Kenyans Win Marathons and Estonians Build Unicorns”, set to be released on July 26, development scholar and author Anirudh Krishna delves into what he terms “flows of excellence” — the continuous, world-class performance by individuals from specific nations or regions in designated fields.
Drawing on over a decade of research, the book disputes widely held beliefs that extraordinary accomplishments are dictated by inherited traits, climate, or cultural factors.
Instead, it posits that excellence arises in contexts where governments, institutions, and communities prioritize the creation of long-term pathways that recognize, cultivate, and support talent.
“Any society can create the infrastructure of opportunity. Instances of world-class excellence have emerged under a variety of conditions — whether in post-Soviet Estonia, dictatorial North Korea, democratic South Korea, economically challenged Kenya, developing Jamaica, contemporary Finland, or resource-scarce Nigeria,” the author asserts.
“None of these successes occurred by chance. Each results from intentional investments based on a shared set of foundational design principles,” he explains in the book.
His research encompasses a wide array of examples, including marathon runners from Kenya and Ethiopia, sprinters from Jamaica, technology entrepreneurs from Estonia, writers from Nigeria, educators from Finland, female golfers from South Korea, wrestlers from Haryana, and even hackers from North Korea.
Through field visits, interviews with athletes, coaches, administrators, and experts, along with secondary research in hard-to-reach places like North Korea, the study concludes that thriving ecosystems of excellence have formed in nations of differing sizes, incomes, climates, and political systems.
The book challenges conventional beliefs that attribute sporting or intellectual success mainly to genetics or geography.
It highlights that Jamaica’s leadership in sprinting and Kenya’s excellence in long-distance running are relatively recent developments, despite both countries possessing similar genetic and geographical features for generations.
For example, the book claims that Jamaica did not instantly transform into a sprinting powerhouse after gaining independence in 1962. The nation’s Olympic medal count remained modest for many years before experiencing a significant uptick around the turn of the millennium.
Likewise, Kenya’s marathon dominance only took off in the mid-2000s after decades of more modest accomplishments.
”Many attribute the success of Kenyan runners to their high-altitude training grounds, which soar to 8,000 feet in Kenya’s Rift Valley — where living and training at such elevations enhances aerobic capacity and provides other physiological benefits.
”However, if altitude were the most critical factor, then there would be numerous world-class long-distance runners from other high-altitude regions, such as Lhasa, Tibet (11,900 feet), La Paz, Bolivia (11,000 feet), and Mammoth Lakes in California (7,880 feet),” the book poses.
The book’s primary argument is that excellence hinges on the availability of a visible, accessible, and continuous “ladder of opportunity” that enables talented individuals to advance from grassroots involvement to elite performance.
“Why Kenyans Win Marathons and Estonians Build Unicorns”, published by Penguin Random House India’s ’Viking’ imprint, is currently available for pre-order online at a price of ₹699.
