Using genetic tests for talent identification in sports: too soon to be true

Abstract

Elite athletes are defi ned as athletes with unique athletic performance achievements at international-level competitions, such as the Olympic Games. Outstanding athletic performance is a consequence of both environmental factors, such as appropriate training and nutrition, which are critical in order to reach the highest performance level; as well as distinctive genetic predisposition to athletic trait capabilities (1) .The genetic composition of athletic performance has been massively studied in the last two decades. It is now well recognized that genetic factors infl uence several phenotypic traits related to exercise and elite athletic status, with reported heritability of roughly 66 % for elite athletic status (2) . One rationale driving the research in the fi eld of genetic predisposition and athletes is that by mapping and understanding the genetic factors (e.g., DNA sequence variants) associated with elite athletic performance,