Belly button key to success in sport

Scientists have found the reason why some people dominate on the running track and other in the swimming pool: It's all to do with their belly-buttons.

What's important is not whether an athlete has an innie or an outie, but where his or her navel is in relation to the rest of the body, says the study published in the International Journal of Design and Nature and Ecodynamics.

The navel is the centre of gravity of the body, and given two runners or swimmers of the same height, one African origin and one European origin, "what matters is not total height but the position of the belly-button, or centre of gravity," says study lead author Professor Andre Bejan of Duke University.

"It so happens that in the architecture of the...

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