''The Sports Gene'' is a nonfiction book written by David Epstein, at the time a senior writer for ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'', on the effects of

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

and sports training on human athleticism. Through investigative journalism, Epstein takes the reader through his experiences regarding what makes the difference between an amateur and a pro-athlete. The book was published in August 2013 by

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.nature versus nurture Nature versus nurture is a long-standing debate in biology and society about the balance between two competing factors which determine fate: genetics (nature) and environment (nurture). The alliterative expression "nature and nurture" in English h ...

as it pertains to training for athletes in sports using anecdotes which favor both sides of the argument. These anecdotes are combined with the results of statistical studies to give the reader an understanding of the magnitude that biology plays in athletics. Topics such as the effects of gender, race, genetics, culture, and physical environment are discussed as contributors to success in specific sports.

Race and sport

Epstein explores racial differences in sports performance and examines both nature and nurture arguments for why certain populations (such as Jamaicans and Kalenjin) are overrepresented among top performers in the 100 meters sprint and marathons respectively. Epstein examines the argument that Kalenjin tend to have a body type conducive to distance running in part due to Allen's Rule. He also explores the contribution of growing up and training at altitude, as well as the phenomenon of running to and from school. In the course of his research, Epstein followed geneticist Yannis Pitsiladis to Jamaica, where he explored folklore that Jamaican sprinters descend from a warrior class of

maroons Maroons are descendants of African diaspora in the Americas, Africans in the Americas who escaped from slavery and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous peoples, eventually ethnogenesi ...

. Pitsiladis analyzes DNA in Jamaica, and finds no special signature that links maroons and sprinters, and concludes that the genetic evidence does not support the island folklore. Rather, both Epstein and Pitsiladis place considerable emphasis on the popularity of the national high school track and field championships as part of the Jamaican sprint dynasty. In chapter of the book, Epstein discusses problems with classifying athletes as simply "black," as he notes that there is more genetic diversity within Africa than in all of the rest of the world combined. He refers to work on global genetic diversity and migration from Yale'
Kidd Lab
to emphasize the point. He also notes that genetic diversity does not break down into discrete races in the way that people often assume.

Reception

The book received positive reviews from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

'', ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''.

Deleted chapter

In August 2013, on the website io9, Epstein published what was called a "deleted chapter" from the book on

epigenetics In biology, epigenetics is the study of stable phenotypic changes (known as ''marks'') that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix '' epi-'' ( "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are "o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sports Gene 2013 non-fiction books American non-fiction books Books about sports Penguin Books books