Amen. I presume the parallel is true: That later-born children are more likely to be elite athletes.
With that established, my older sisters can quit saying I got lucky that time I beat them in horseshoes. Or that they weren't trying when I beat them at P-I-G on our driveway basketball hoop. Or that they were lucky when they outran me consistently throughout our childhoods.
Look around. It's obvious. Younger siblings are usually better athletes.
Venus Williams is great, but younger sister Serena is better. Michael Jordan is the youngest of three sons. Tom Brady is the youngest of four children (with three older sisters!). Bo Jackson was the eighth of 10 children. Bobby Brady had (at least) four older siblings. Maggie Simpson was the youngest of three children.
Brad Stanhope was the youngest of four children.
I was known in my childhood neighborhood for my Nerf football, wiffleball and red-white-and-blue basketball skills (or maybe for owning a Nerf football, wiffleball and bat, and red-white-and-blue basketball.
My sisters weren't.
While the Canada-Australia study didn't highlight specific reasons for the superiority of younger siblings, there are theories. In an article for analytics website fivethirtyeight.com, Tom Wigmore pointed out that younger siblings strive to keep up with older siblings, heightening their abilities and gaining early exposure to sports. He also said athletes improve when they are challenged and fail, something that often happens early for younger siblings.
Those didn't come into play for me, of course. Had I attempted to keep up with my sisters early in life, I would have played with paper dolls and taking piano lessons. (Later, it would have included stealing my dad's liquor and smoking weed, but let's keep that between us.)
However, being the youngest sibling helped. The rare chances to play one-on-one basketball with a sister (and taunt her after I won) or play wiffleball (and taunt her after I threw a curveball) heightened my confidence. My ability to build a janky version of a "Superstars" obstacle course in the backyard (hurdle over a broken-down sawhorse, climb over the shed, step in two inner-tubes and pretend there are more), then beat them after practicing for hours helped me know I was better than them.
There's a chance (guarantee) that my sisters didn't care that I beat them in basketball or could strike them out in wiffleball or could kick a nerf ball farther. There's a chance (likelihood) that they could have beaten me at most things if they practiced, but since I was their younger brother, they let me win.
Those are chances, but let's remember the science: The study conducted in Australia and Canada said younger siblings are far more likely to be elite athletes.
And while I never became an elite athlete (or arguably, even a mediocre athlete), one thing is true. The younger sibling has an advantage. In our case, I'm the only one with a newspaper column where I can tell stories about winning one-on-one basketball games or throwing curveballs with a wiffleball.
That's elite, right?
The younger child wins again. Me, Tom Brady, Michael Jordan and Maggie Simpson.
Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.
