“Athleticism runs in the family” is a popularized saying that remarks on many members of a family having success in athletics and sports. This saying, while not meant to be taken literally, has been backed by science. According to the European Journal of Applied Physiology, there are more than 200 different genetic variations that can impact athletic performance. Similarly, there are at least 20 generic variations that can contribute to professional-level performance. A popular example is height, and this phenomenon is prevalent in many sports where height predisposes a large advantage. 

One such sport is basketball. Senior Mackenzie Woods, member of the women’s basketball team, said being tall is one of the strongest advantages you could have in basketball. 

“Unfortunately, I’m not considered ‘tall,’” Woods said. “Most basketball players would rather be tall than short; being tall in basketball means you can shoot over people easier, grab more rebounds, and sometimes even dunk.”

As an athlete classified as “short” in her sport, Woods said her height still gave her advantages, even if it wasn’t the stereotypical ideal height for her sport. 

“I’m about five feet, eight inches, so being short in basketball means my advantages revolve around speed,” Woods said. “This can be driving past defenders or playing good defense. Being short means you can drive past people using your speed, get low on defense and make it hard for people to drive by you, and allow you to have a greater handle on the ball.”

Caleb Hall, IB Sports Exercise and Health Medicine teacher, said he agreed with Woods.

“Height can certainly have an advantage in sports like basketball,” Hall said. “Height is premium, but I think skill and ability play more of a role (in sports).”

For a team sport like basketball, Woods said a mix of heights is ideal. 

She said, “Having both tall and short players is essential to a basketball team because it provides versatility and a range of different skill sets.”

However, junior Lewis Zhang, member of the men’s swim team and 6’2″, said height does not play a huge role in team performance. 

“Height doesn’t make too much of a difference,” Zhang said. “Being tall definitely helps, but the best swimmers in the world right now are around six feet, one inch to six feet, three inches, which is above average by a lot, but not super tall in athletics.”

Zhang said he agreed with Woods; although they both participate in different sports, being tall has distinct advantages in both sports. 

“Being taller does present a large amount of advantages,” Zhang said. “In swimming, being taller indicates decently long limbs, meaning more water is pulled with each stroke. This creates more efficiency, which will lead to greater speed.”

However, Zhang said these benefits typically did not hinder the success of those it was excluded from, and also bear costs.

 “Being super tall can make someone uncoordinated, which would make it difficult to find the right stroke rhythm for them,” Zhang said. “There are great short swimmers that are around average human height. However, they have the disadvantage of having less efficiency as their limbs are usually shorter, but  it gives them the purpose to work extremely hard to reach the levels of tall people, and short swimmers having a great work ethic seems common.”

Hall said stigmas were commonplace in sports surrounding heights.

“There are certainly stigmas for height,” Hall said. “Basketball players are usually the taller people in the school. (There’s an implication) that if you’re tall, you play a sport.”

Zhang said he rejects the notion of height-related stigmas in his sport. 

“There is not a lot of stigma regarding height,” Zhang said. “The only times I can think of would be if a shorter swimmer beats a taller swimmer, or when a swimmer is said to do well only or mostly because of their height. But in my experience, successful swimmers who are short are praised for doing well even with their height, and successful swimmers who are tall are praised for doing well.”