Some athletes have won the genetic lottery, prompting scientists to probe the role of genes in athletic prowess. For example, Eero Antero Mäntyranta, a Finnish skier who participated in four Olympic Games in 1960s and won seven medals, had a red blood count 20 per cent higher than that of other athletes, even though his training regime was not different. In the 1990s, scientists discovered that 50 of 200 members of his family, including the Olympian, carried a rare mutation in a gene that increased the oxygen-carrying capacity of his red blood cells by 25-50 per cent and gave him a performance boost.
On average, 66 per cent of differences in athlete status can be explained by genetic factors, with the remaining shaped by environmental factors such as practice, nutrition, birthplace and the availability of medical and social support, as per a 2007 study published in the journal Twin Research and Human Genetics.
Cut to 2024, there are still gaps in the understanding of how genes interact with each other. The majority of studies so far have evaluated genes independently even though a lot of the genes interact with each other.
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