Athletic Genetics

[jpom1234]

If athletes who compete at the highest level in their respective sports have children. Do these children have the greatest potential for reaching the same level. How guaranteed is it, I would assume its high but I am not aware of many cases of it happening.

Why is this?

[Strange]

Well, I suppose there might be some genetic component that makes some people better at sports; longer legs or whatever. This will tend to be inherited by their children. But I suspect personality, attitude and motivation are more significant.

 

If you are wondering whether all the years of training will be passed on to the children then, no. Although the attitude and determination might be, though the way they are brought up.

[overtone]

We could start by looking at arenas of athletic breeding which are better controlled and more available to researchers - such as thoroughbred race horses or fighting chickens.

 

Inheritance of athletic ability in whatever form is crucial is fairly common among people, btw: we currently have two brothers not only starting first team but excelling at professional quarterback in American football, for example, and two sisters not only playing but excelling at professional tennis.

 

The football quarterback example is interesting, in that the genetic athletic abilities involved are not obvious beyond a certain minimum of coordination and arm strength and a bias toward height. One researcher has proposed a careful look at the ability to refocus one's eyes - apparently eye focus speed is not very responsive to training, and varies by more than an order of magnitude among the species in general - that is unusual among human physical traits.