The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance

"Anytime we’re looking at someone who is an excellent performer, there are questions of, ‘Is it that they have some sort of biological or genetic advantage? Is it training? Are there accidental things involved, like this person was raised at altitude or happened to be healthy for a long stretch of time?’ In the book, Epstein goes through the various ways in which these factors interact. It’s a very interesting book in terms of assessing what constitutes talent. And there are always counter examples: someone who biologically seems like they shouldn’t have performed at a high level, and yet things come together in the right way. It gets back to one of the core questions of athletics, which is, ‘Why are some people good at it and others are not?’ He has one section on malaria and a culture that had been exposed to malaria over a given period of time. The presence of malaria selected for certain genes, which both made them less susceptible to malaria and increased fast-twitch muscle fibers. This has a performance benefit. So that’s an example of an unexpected accidental condition, something not within an athlete’s control, that dictates how well they can perform."