Is there an association between countries’ culture and runners’ performance?

Background: It is widely accepted that countries’ characteristics influence sports performance. However, there is a missing link regarding the association between cultural dimensions and runners’ performance. Our purpose was to verify if the six cultural dimensions of Hofstede are related to performance in non-elite runners and to investigate whether cultural factors remain as predictors when individual factors are considered. Methods: We used a cross-sectional design, sampling 279 runners from Brazil, Spain, Kenya, Portugal, and Poland. We used a web survey to collect data from runners, while countries’ cultural dimensions were obtained through the six dimensions of Hofstede’s theory (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence). A robust regression analysis was performed considering three different models (crude, adjusted by cultural dimensions, adjusted by runners’ characteristics). For all analyses, running pace was considered as performance indicator. Analysis was performed in STATA (version 14), adopting a 95% confidence interval. Results: The crude model showed that power distance and indulgence were associated with running pace. The culture-adjusted model showed that higher scores of masculinity in a country leads to lower performance (β = 3.9; p < 0.001), while higher scores of individualism is associated with to higher performance (β = −3.3; p < 0.001). When the model was adjusted for runners’ variables, individualism remained as a significant predictor (β = −1.4; p = 0.035). The last model explains 41% of the runner’s performance variance. Conclusion: Runners, coaches, and policymakers can better understand the drivers and barriers to performance and running practice across different countries.