Racial variation in physique and body composition.

Racial variation in physique and body composition are of interest to sport scientists because these characteristics may be related to athletic performance, fitness, strength and injury. There is clearly variation among groups in mean somatotypes and the sitting height-stature relationship. Although differences are often emphasized, racial group distributions of variables describing physique often overlap to a considerable extent. Environment may be a factor in group differences in physique. Consistent Black-White differences are found in mean levels of variables related to bone mineralization, with Blacks exceeding Whites. It may be that the lean body mass of Blacks is of greater density than that of Whites. Gross morphological variation among groups is probably only a concomitant of variation in performance rather than a determinant of performance.