The Sports Gene: How Olympians are made (or born)
February 5, 2014 1 Comment
Erika Coimbra,
Brazilian Summer Olympian,
and one of the subjects of
“The Sports Gene”
The venues at Sochi are still, it seems, a work in progress. Nevertheless, before the week’s end, we will (should?) see the Winter Olympic games start up. Soon, we’ll get to watch some of the finest athletes in the world compete at their sport.
There has been a lot of talk about the on-going construction at the most expensive games in Olympic history, as well as the issue of gay rights and cultural sensibilities in Russia; and there have been worries about the potential for terrorism. But soon, when the competitions begin, I hope the focus will justifiably be on the athletes on the snow and ice.
Or in Tweet speak: #LetGamesBegin
I’ve not been consciously preparing for this elite sporting event, but rather coincidentally recently picked up a book that highlights elite athletes and has received a great deal of positive ‘buzz’: The Sports Gene, by David Epstein.
You likely have heard of the book. It has been receiving excellent reviews and is generating a lot of chatter in print, visual and social media. On Monday, for instance, The Guardian hosted a live chat online with the author. Subtitled, “Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance,” the book delves into one of the ‘ultimate’ questions in sport: nature or nurture, which is more important? And, specifically, which is more important in the realm of elite sport?
Like many ‘ultimate’ questions, the real answer is not a clean, binary one. That said, I walk away from reading this book thinking the bulk of the evidence is in favor of nature: genetic endowments favor the production of elite athletes. Read more of this post
