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4037
Joined
1/10/2011
Location
Hollow Barrels, CA
US
Fantasy
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Black Diesel Bomber
4/12/2017 11:52am
4/12/2017 11:52am
Edited Date/Time
4/14/2017 12:34pm
With the amazing Aaron Gwin doing his thing in MTB, he kind of reminded me of the GOAT and RV with his red hair. Those redheads must have something special in their blood, from Wikipedia:
"Red hair occurs naturally in 1–2% of the human population. It occurs more frequently (2–6%) in people of northern or western European ancestry, and less frequently in other populations. Red hair appears most commonly in people with two copies of a recessive allele on chromosome 16 which produces an altered version of the MC1R protein"
Quite a few dominant redheads on 2 wheels:
Carmichael
Villopoto
Ferry
Hepler
Canard
Aaron Gwin
In other sports:
Shaun White
Mark McGuire
Plenty of hockey players
I'm sure there are plenty more. Pretty cool article on Gwin for those who are getting into racing "late":
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/aaron-gwin--the-interview.html
"Red hair occurs naturally in 1–2% of the human population. It occurs more frequently (2–6%) in people of northern or western European ancestry, and less frequently in other populations. Red hair appears most commonly in people with two copies of a recessive allele on chromosome 16 which produces an altered version of the MC1R protein"
Quite a few dominant redheads on 2 wheels:
Carmichael
Villopoto
Ferry
Hepler
Canard
Aaron Gwin
In other sports:
Shaun White
Mark McGuire
Plenty of hockey players
I'm sure there are plenty more. Pretty cool article on Gwin for those who are getting into racing "late":
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/aaron-gwin--the-interview.html
The Shop
Two years ago we took a buddy of mine(legit ex-special forces) to his first supercross in ATL. The subject of redheads doing well at MX came up. He said that in one of the special military schools he went through that had a high drop out rate, about 50% of his graduating class was red headed. He happened to have brown hair but said he thought there was something to it. Like someone else said you seem to see it throughout other sports.
Damn straight bro
Pit Row
Jk
Yes, I'm a 'racialist' (c/r Ali G). If you are not a Ranga, well, bow down before Us .
By the way, this is a joke - well, maybe not - Ranga's are the bestest. Hell, what's wrong with a bit of Ranga promotion, when a common saying is "beaten like a red headed step child"? I can attest to the aggression, at least when I was a little bloke - mess with me and / or my brothers, and you paid dearly. Got older, mellowed out a lot - perhaps it's all the aggression being dissipated by the bodies efforts in dealing with continual pain from permanent injuries? Nah, it's just the calm one attains as you realize how far above all 'others' you are as a Ranga...............
And yes, if red hair is a blessing in some ways it comes with the curse of fair skin. In fact, it's my feeling that red hair fair skin males are the minority of minorities in the US. And as a minority with different skin color you face very real social issues with respect to acceptance and ridicule, particularly growing up (kids can be very cruel). As a result, at least in my case, I tended to direct myself towards activities/sports that didn't involve a team and where my fair skin would be less obvious (no shirtless/shorts type sports). Motocross was a perfect outlet for me so I spent most of my free time riding or working on my bike while all the other kids were hanging at the beach, lake or pool. Remember, this was back in the early 70s.
I've wasn't blessed with lots of athletic ability but did relatively well at the local races just because of the sheer amount of time I spent with my bike. My experience on the track was one of those few times I truly felt I was being judged by my actions and not my hair or skin color, a major source of motivation for me.
Times have changed a bit, but if kids still make fun of "redheads" like me, just think of the potential of someone born with more athletic talent! It might help explain the rise of fair skinned racers in the sport. Or not.
As far as the pain thing, when I was having my second Melanoma surgery (yeah, that's another red head thing) the doc asked if she could do it with a local. Since she was uber hot and I liked looking at her, I said what the hell, go for it.
She numbed me up, gave it some time to work, and started to slice into my arm. At that point I asked her if the scalpel was supposed to feel cold. She almost had a heart attack at that point. Lot's more numbing ensued. She couldn't get over the pain tolerance.
BTW, everyone missed the dominant red head from my era...Wardy.
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