Macrocosm: Answering the Age Old Question, Are Athletes Born or Made?
Karan Kapoor
Have you ever watched an athlete compete in a game and thought to yourself, “they were born to do this”? You are not alone. For as long as there have been sports, people have wondered if elite athletes are born or made.
Some athletes seem to have genetic cheat codes or superhuman abilities. Fans joke that they were created in a lab. At the same time, whenever we watch a sports documentary, we can expect to hear about all the hard work an elite athlete put in at the gym or during practice.
On the one hand, genetics makes sense. Just take a look at all of the famous siblings in the sports or the young elite athletes following in their parents’ footsteps. On the other, would sports teams with access to the best resources in world really make their players train for hours if it didn’t make much of a difference?
So what is it? Are elites just born with it, or does practice really make perfect?
Genes Provide an Advantage
Genetic inheritance is entirely random. There is no way to predict which alleles children will receive from their parents. When it comes to genetics, scientist can only speak in terms of probability. You are this percent likely to have brown hair or grow taller than 6 feet.
The random nature of inheritance tells us that every once in a while, someone will win ‘the genetic lottery’. This means that from time to time an athlete is born with the perfect body for their sport. A tall swimmer with short legs, a long torso, and large wingspan like Michael Phelps or a tall soccer player with naturally low body fat and an excess of skeletal muscle fibers like Cristiano Ronaldo.
Athletes can always build muscle or train to improve their hand-eye coordination, but there are many traits they cannot change, like their height, wingspan, or hand size. Certain physical features give athletes a clear advantage in a given sport but they aren’t always a determinant of success. The average height of an NBA player has historically been around 6-foot-7. Nate Robinson, the only athlete to win the NBA Slam Dunk Contest three times, is 5’9’’. Isaiah Thomas (5’9”), Muggsy Bogues (5’3’’), and Spud Webb (5’6’’) all come in well under the average but have had insanely successful basketball careers.
Many people set out to become professional athletes, but most fall short of that goal. For example, only 1.2% of NCAA athletes are drafted by an NBA team. In such a competitive environment, even the smallest genetic factors can equal a huge advantage. Some athletes appear to have literal ‘sports genes’ that give them a one-up over their competition.
The ACE gene is responsible for regulating blood pressure and controlling muscle growth. It comes in over 160 ‘flavors’; two are strongly linked to enhanced athletic performance. A deletion in a small region of the gene is associated with amplified endurance. An insertion in that same location has been shown to increase strength and power. Naturally, the ACE gene has been the star of multiple research studies.
It turns out that Olympic swimmers are more likely to have the ‘power’ version of the gene than the general public. When you think about it, most swimming events last less than 2 minutes, so power is a key to success in these competitions. Researchers also discovered a similar correlation between elite runners and the ‘endurance’ variant. What’s more, the frequency of the allele increased with competitive distance. Simply put, you are more likely to encounter an athlete with the endurance gene racing in the 5,000m run than the 200m dash.
The ACTN3 gene – nicknamed the “gene for speed” – encodes a protein that controls fast-twitch muscle fibers. These are the fibers we use to generate short bursts of speed or strength, so they are involved in actions such as sprinting, jumping, and weight-lifting. Different variations of the ACTN3 gene are associated with increased muscle power or greater endurance.
You receive one allele from each of your parents, so the ACTN3 gene comes in 3 combinations, which vary in frequency among different ethnic groups. The interesting thing is, in 2008, researchers found that 99% of Kenyans have at least one copy of the “sprint” allele. Not without controversy, many have used this fact to rationalize the large number of elite runners who come out of Kenya.
The predominance of Kenyan runners who hold elite level running titles can be just as easily explained by evolution. The Kalenjin tribe in Kenya makes up only 0.08% of the global population, but between 1987 and 1996, its people won nearly 40% of all international medals for distance running. The Kalenjin tribe is only one of many nestled in the Great Rift Valley, where people live at high altitudes. Living at such elevations helps increase the amount of red blood (oxygen-carrying) cells in the body. Kenya also lies on the equator, where the hot, dry climate favors traits such as long legs and thin limbs because they help the body cool itself. Coincidentally, these physical features also happen to make great runners. To date, six of the top 10 fastest marathon times ever recorded belong to runners from the Great Rift Valley.
Does Practice Really Make Perfect?
We’ve all heard the old adage “practice makes perfect”. Malcolm Gladwell took this one step further when he brought the 10,000-hour to mainstream attention in his 2008 book, Outliers. The rule says that it takes only 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to master a skill. In 2010, at the age of 30, Dan McLaughlin decided to test this. He quit his day job as a commercial photographer with the aspirations of becoming a professional golfer and someday qualifying for the PGA Tour. Small problem: McLaughlin had never played a full round of golf in his life.
Practicing for at least 30 hours a week, he racked up over 6,000 hours in 5 years. McLaughlin never made it to 10,000 hours; an unfortunate injury forced him throw in the towel before reaching his ultimate goal. We will never know if the “Dan Plan” would have worked, but the 10,000-hours rule has been debunked repeatedly by both science and the researchers whose work it is based on.
The 10,000-hour rule started with a simple notion: the most elite performers are the ones that practice the most. What does this mean for the sports world? There is a consensus that deliberate practice, what we would call training, improves athletic performance. Gladwell based his 10,000-hours rule on generic practice, but deliberate practice is far more targeted. It involves completing exercises that develop specific skills, following expert recommendations, correcting weaknesses, setting realistic goals, and breaking out of your comfort zone.
Even then, something as random as an athlete’s birthday can increase their chance of ‘making it’. Those born in January, February, and March are more likely to find success in the top level of sports, a phenomenon called the relative age effect (RAE). The cut-off date for most youth sports programs is January 1st. Come time for tryouts (usually in the fall), children born in the first quarter of the year have a size advantage over their peers and therefore a greater chance of making the team. Different studies of Olympians and NCAA Division I athletes have found that RAE is present in all sports. Sports success has also been linked to the city an athlete is born in, their race, class, family structure, and plenty of other social factors.
Motivation is one ingredient that is often overlooked but essential to the making of an elite athlete. For many, a career in sports is a ticket out of poverty. LeBron James spent his formative years bouncing from apartment to apartment with his single, teenage mother. Mike Tyson grew up in the worst neighborhoods of New York and was arrested more than 30 times before the age of 13. Pelé, who grew up in poverty, could not afford a ball and learned to play soccer using a rolled-up sock stuffed with newspaper. The possibility of bettering their lives and those of their families’ could give some athletes the extra push needed to reach the next level. The correct anatomy, combined with a desire to work hard, is a proven recipe for athletic success. This only works, of course, if the right resources eventually become available.
The motivation to achieve glory isn’t always rooted in such devastating circumstances. The biggest Cinderella story of 2020, the Miami Heat, made it to the NBA Finals fueled by the chips on their shoulders. Every player on the team has some kind of underdog story, and they wanted to prove that they belonged. Team captain Udonis Haslem summed it up best, “you had to go through something in life that put a chip on your shoulder. And that’s built grit inside you that you’re willing to go through extreme circumstances to get where you’re trying to go”. Even eventual NBA Champion and Finals MVP LeBron James wanted to win the title in order to silence all of haters that had counted him out of the GOAT conversation. In his victory speech, James pointed out, “I want my d— respect, too”.
It Works Both Ways
It’s pretty clear that athletic success isn’t simply black and white. Without training, genetics doesn’t really mean much. The best of the best are notorious for being the first to arrive and last to leave the gym. Serena Williams, Jimmy Butler, Sergio Ramos, and Tom Brady are known for their “work hard, play harder” mentalities. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you find professional athletes who are considered lazy and rely too heavily on their natural abilities. Dele Alli, James Harden, Eden Hazard, and many others have all been subject to such comments. These athletes are often criticized for not living up to their fullest potential.
Even the ACE and ACTN3 genes are only linked to enhanced sports performance when training is involved. Researchers from the University of Cape Town looked at years of scientific literature and concluded that “although deliberate training and other environmental factors are critical for elite performance, they cannot by themselves produce an elite athlete”. If anything, genetics and training go hand in hand. Athletes work with sports scientists, nutritionist, and trainers to find exercise routines and diets that best fit their physical biology. What works for one athlete may not work for another and that simply comes down to genetics.
Training is also responsible for physical changes that may elevate an athlete’s game. Weight lifting broadens shoulders, squats build strength, suicide drills increase speed, and burpees boost endurance. All of these skills are essential across the sports world. At the end of the day, the recipe for an elite athlete consists of many ingredients – some you already have at home, and a few you have to go out and buy.