Birthplace effect is the tendency for smaller cities to produce disproportionately more professional athletes than larger cities.

　　Birthplace effect“出生地效应”是指小城市产生的职业运动员数目远远多于大城市的趋势。

　　A few years a ago, while poring over the statistics of over 2,000 athletes in the NHL, NBA, MBA, and the PGA, sport scientist Jean C?té and his colleagues noticed something interesting.

　　体育运动学家让.科特及其同事对美国全国篮球联赛、全美冰球联盟联赛、职业高尔夫球巡回赛等2000多名运动员进行研究时，发现了一个有意思的现象。

　　children growing up in cities of more than one million inhabitants had a significantly lower chance of making it to the top than children growing up in cities of less than 500,000, and in particular in towns between 5,000 and 50,000 in size. This phenomenon has been labelled the birthplace effect.

　　出生在人口超百万的大城市的小孩，成为顶级运动员的可能性，远低于那些出生在50万以下人口的小城市，尤其是5万到50万人口的城市的小孩。他们将这种现象称为“出生地效应”(birthplace effece)。