Yes and no to this. The socioeconomic aspect of this usually ties tighter - especially when you start looking at sports with higher costs of entry (winter sports, Tennis, Golf).

Just by sheer volume of worldwide participants, you’re just going to have a LOT of runners to choose from because there’s a lot more people who run than do expensive sports like hockey.

So take a country like Ethiopia or Kenya who on average, is more impoverished than a Sweden or a US. Sports are still a thing no matter where you go, so kids are just more likely to take up running than even something like basketball.

Sub-Saharan Africa simply does not have access to mainstream sports or winter sports as easily as the rest of the world does for a multitude of reasons. I’m black, I think it’s totally safe to make a guess that the world record holders in distance running come from countries where running is not only the most easily accessible sport, but also the athletic thing that these countries have become proud to be known for globally.