Essay: The makings of the perfect athlete

Abstract

Compared with primates, people have several anatomical and physiological facets that have evolved over time and that lend themselves to endurance running. Although these adaptations are common to all modern human beings, there are great differences in physical performance between populations. This fact raises the intriguing possibility that certain populations might have further adapted, predisposing them to higher levels of physical performance. The dominance of long-distance running events and sprint events by east African and west African athletes, respectively, is often described as an example of population specialisation, but the extent to which these successes are mediated by genetic variation is unknown. Within all populations, including seemingly specialised populations, there exists large interindividual variation in physical performance. Most people—whether from an urban city like Glasgow, UK, or from the town of Eldoret in rural Kenya, from where a disproportionately high number of Kenyan running legends originate— will recall from their youth some children who seemed to be naturally better at certain sporting events than others. Even at the elite level, only a relatively small number of athletes compared with the number in training will win an Olympic or World Championship medal during their career, though the training regimes of those who do and do not win might be similar, with some even sharing the same coach. There is good evidence that lends support to the theory that athletic capability is inborn, resulting in the disparity in physical performance noted, without excluding the importance of the environment in enhancing any favourable, or overcoming any unfavourable, genetic predisposition.