The Sports Gene
What makes an athlete? This pioneering study redefines elite performance.
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
The truth about performance beyond the 10,000-hour theory.
Are champions born or made? In The Sports Gene, investigative journalist David Epstein unpacks the decades-long debate about nature versus nurture in human performance. Drawing on genetics, physiology and psychology, Epstein explores how elite athletes push the limits of body and mind - from the DNA variations that enhance endurance to the training cultures that mould world-class performers.
Blending science with gripping storytelling, he reveals that success in sport is far more complex than talent or practice alone. An essential read for fans of Outliers, Range, and anyone fascinated by how and why humans excel.
‘A wonderful book. Thoughtful… fascinating’ Malcolm Gladwell
‘Terrific and unblinking... a timely corrective to the talent-denial industry’ Ed Smith, New Statesman
‘Endlessly fascinating’ Daily Mail
‘Captivating, fascinating’ New York Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Are Tiger Woods, Jim Ryun, Serena Williams, and Michael Jordan natural athletes whose success in their own sports would have occurred whether they developed their gifts or not? Are some individuals genetically disposed to some sports, while others lack the genetic predisposition to succeed at the same sports? Sports Illustrated senior writer Epstein probes these questions in a disjointed study. Drawing on interviews with athletes and scientists, he points out that "a nation succeeds in a sport not only by having many people who practice prodigiously at sport-specific skills, but also by getting the best all-around athletes into the right sports in the first place." Epstein observes that some scientists and athletes confirm that the so-called 10,000 hours of practice produces quality athletes, while others assert that the number of hours spent in practice matters little if a team has not already selected superior athletes in the first place. Epstein comes closest to scoring a home run in his provocative and thoughtful focus on the relationships between gender and race and genetic determination why do male and female athletes compete separately, and are there genetic reasons to do so? and why do the best sprinters always come from Jamaica and so many long-distance Olympian runners hail from Kenya? While he helpfully leads readers into the dugout of modern genetics and sports science, his overall conclusions challenge few assumptions. In the end, he concedes that "any case for sports expertise that leans entirely either on nature or nurture is a straw-man argument."
