Are Good Athletes Born Or Made?

Unleash the ROAR

I brought my son to football practice earlier today and noticed that some kids were really athletic, a lot quicker and stronger than most of the children of the same age. Of course some were not so. 

Which begets the question of whether good athletes are born with physical gifts or can hard work trump talent?

Here is what a recently published study (Silventoinen et al , 2024) says. This really interesting study involving 198 twins (6-18 years old) used 15 tests to assess for genetic contribution or environmental contributions. In short, the twins completed a battery of tests to analyze whether it is just talent or training that made them good or not so good athletes. Genes versus environment. 

40 percent (78) of the twins were monozygotic (or identical twins), sharing the same DNA. The rest were fraternal, meaning they share about half their DNA. This would mean that if the results of a certain test are more similar within identical twins than fraternal twins then that suggests a larger genetic influence.

The results (below) show that genes played a big role in the results. Between 52-79 percent of your flexibility, power and strength is determined by your genes. Thank your mum and dad for those of you blessed in those areas. I will definitely thank mine for what they gave me.

Picture from Silventoinen et al, 2024

See the figure above, 52 percent in the standing long jump, and a whopping 79 percent for sit and reach showing that the girls performing better than boys in flexibility. The boys performed better than girls in cardiorespiratory endurance and muscular strength. Most of the tests actually showed modest to moderate genetic correlations. 

The 3 tests that were most correlated with the rest of the tests were push-ups, standing long jump (standing broad jump for us Singaporeans) and the Beep Test. Need a simple and quick way of assessing someone's overall fitness, these 3 are the easiest. Perhaps our schools' DSA, Singapore Armed Forces and sports talent ID department should take note when assessing talent.

What about the role of the environment? We need to consider 2 components here. Shared environmental factors, like the area you grew up in, socioeconomic status, opportunities to play sports etc. There are also unique environmental factors, which reflect your own path through life. Whether you joined a sports team, broke your leg /arm or had a great physical education teacher that believed in/ motivated you.

The effects of shared environmental factors appear to be negligible in this study. This is in contrast to earlier published data. So this study's analyses focused on genetic and unique environmental factors.

From my previous readings, work and experience, I would have thought running fast (sprinting) and explosive power (jumps) were 'gifts' from your parents more so than endurance. You may have heard the saying that sprinters are born while endurance runners are made. You may also know a runner that trained loads before becoming a great marathon runner. 

The results in this study do not totally back those assumptions since standing long (or broad) jump (the best measure of explosive power in the tests) had the lowest genetic contribution. But that may be the difference between 2 facets of talent : untrained performance levels and trainability. 

The standing long jump performance may show the explosive properties in their muscles, but it does not reflect a determined and serious effort to train.

Similarly, the 12 min run results do not tell what happens when you clock 100 km of training a week. They are all estimates of 'starting points' but will not tell us how much, with sufficient hard (and smart) work, where we might end up. 

In 2001while representing Singapore

A physiotherapist that treated me after I had stress fractures in both my shins (when I was 20) told me that I would not become a good triathlete. Happy to prove that person wrong later (pictured above with Dimitry Gagg, 1999 World Triathlon Champion And Daniel Lee, 2006 Asian Games Silver medalist) and doubly so when I overheard that same physiotherapist telling another colleague that our physiotherapy department had athletes too after I joined them.

You may be blessed with the best genes, but if you do not train smart and hard enough, there will be others with less talent who will be able to be better than you because they trained smarter and harder.

Some of those ideas are not solely my own. They are discussed in detail by David Epstein in his 2013 book The Sports Gene. 

Whatever genes you have, remember to thank your parents.

Reference

Silventoinen K, Maia J, Sillanpaa E et al (2024). Genetic Regulation Of Physical Fitness In Children: A Twin Study Of 15 Tests From Eurofit And Fitness gram Test Betteries. Med Sci Sp Ex. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003496