Born to Run? Little Ones Get Test for Sports Gene

Posted by Kendall Harmon

When Donna Campiglia learned recently that a genetic test might be able to determine which sports suit the talents of her 2 ½-year-old son, Noah, she instantly said, Where can I get it and how much does it cost?

“I could see how some people might think the test would pigeonhole your child into doing fewer sports or being exposed to fewer things, but I still think it’s good to match them with the right activity,” Ms. Campiglia, 36, said as she watched a toddler class at Boulder Indoor Soccer in which Noah struggled to take direction from the coach between juice and potty breaks.

“I think it would prevent a lot of parental frustration,” she said.

In health-conscious, sports-oriented Boulder, Atlas Sports Genetics is playing into the obsessions of parents by offering a $149 test that aims to predict a child’s natural athletic strengths. The process is simple. Swab inside the child’s cheek and along the gums to collect DNA and return it to a lab for analysis of ACTN3, one gene among more than 20,000 in the human genome.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Science & Technology • Sports • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

8 Comments
Posted November 30, 2008 at 2:38 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. BlueOntario wrote:

“...obsessions of parents…” - key phrase. I can think of a few better ways to prevent parental frustration than a genetic test of a child.

What is wrong with us?

November 30, 5:44 pm | [comment link]
2. Chris wrote:

does Sports Illustrated still run that section “another sign the apocalypse is upon us” - this would be fitting…..

November 30, 6:02 pm | [comment link]
3. SouthCoast wrote:

Being a 5’10” female in high school, and fairly quick on my feet, I was generally pushed into trying basketball. The fact that I truly and viscerally abhor team sports seemed to make no impression. I feel sorry for those little kids being tested. Besides, what about working hard at overcoming one’s natural limitationsas I did decades later in kung fu? Nah… No science behind that!

November 30, 6:06 pm | [comment link]
4. justinmartyr wrote:

Mightn’t a distinction be made between knowing more about your kid’s biological strengths, and forcing your kid to perform in those areas?

Ultra-sounds allow parents to determine the sex of their children. Most people don’t fear that that information will be used in a way detrimental to the welfare of the child.

November 30, 6:48 pm | [comment link]
5. Larry Morse wrote:

The worst of the risks lies here: If you can isolate genes that favor superior sport performance, then you can add them to an existing gene. Recombinant dna has come a long way in the past ten years, as has in vitro fertilization. Will a parent be able to resist adding performance-enhancing dna to his unborn child’s gene if the addition can be done? And it WILL be done; we all know this. If you had an opportunity o give your unborn child superior performance genes, would you refuse? And what will the church say about this new manufactory? At the present moment, the Anglican Church acts as if these alterations ini humanity were all imaginary.  Larry

December 1, 8:24 am | [comment link]
6. Harvey wrote:

Shades of Frankenstien!!  Nuff said!!

December 1, 11:04 am | [comment link]
7. Irenaeus wrote:

Uh-oh! This might cause chronic cheating and shoplifting. http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/article/18249/#307722

December 1, 11:48 am | [comment link]
8. Irenaeus wrote:

Next stop: prenatal sports-gene testing.

December 1, 6:06 pm | [comment link]
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