How does success in sports depend on nationality? Russians and Japanese have no equal in body shape

We’re sure many people are familiar with the name Mohammed Ali. The legendary American boxer and Olympic champion. His daughter followed in her father’s footsteps and also became a world boxing champion. Another example: Anatoly Tishchenko, Russian kayak rower, twice world champion, his son is a seven-time world champion in kayak rowing. Here’s what we’re getting at: there is an impression that ethnicity influences a person’s success in a certain sport. Let’s find out if that’s true.

doctor-geneticist, bioinformatician, head of the analytical department of the biomedical holding company Atlas.

Scientists have not yet managed to find a specific gene that would be responsible for the success of a representative of any race or ethnicity in sports.

According to the expert, success in a particular sport is also influenced by the existing system of work with athletes. If we talk about Russia, we can rightfully be proud of our figure skating school. At the same time, there are representatives of various nationalities in the Russian national team in this sport. Russian figure skating coach Eteri Tutberidze has prepared champions for other countries – Georgia, Kazakhstan. Therefore, perseverance of athletes, professionalism of the coach, quality and regularity of training are more important than ethnicity.

What else influences the achievements of professional athletes?

The doctor-geneticist notes that in sports the body’s reaction to certain types of loads is important, and it is different for everyone. Therefore, it is important for an athlete to be motivated, hardworking and regularly train under the guidance of a qualified coach.

Success in sports depends on the ratio of fast and slow muscle fibers, which are genetically determined:

• Strength and speed of an athlete depend on fast muscle fibers – they contract quickly but are highly fatiguable.
• Endurance depends on slow muscle fibers – they contract slowly and are low fatigue.

As for heredity, genetics, according to the expert, is related to the efficiency of cellular respiration (the process of releasing chemical energy of nutrients) and the structure of fibers. But here, too, things are ambiguous.

Dmitry: Scientists have long been trying to identify genetic factors that have a positive effect on athletic performance. For example, in a study involving professional Russian athletes of national and international level, they discovered one peculiarity. In representatives of power and speed sports, variants in the genes UGT2B4 and DMD were identified. However, this finding is not yet applicable in practice.

Is it possible to know one’s strengths and weaknesses in sports from DNA?

Surely every athlete would like to know in advance in which sport he or she will be able to achieve maximum success. Especially since some DNA tests promise to find the ideal type of physical activity. But, according to bioinformatician, it is not worth choosing a sports section for yourself or your child, based only on genetic data or sports achievements of relatives. DNA testing is useful in that it can help assess the likelihood of certain sports injuries, such as inguinal hernia. If a person knows about the high risk of its development, he or she will be able to take measures to avoid the pathology.

Dmitry: So far, a genetic test can only show the metabolism of substances important for athletes, such as levocarnitine, which increases overall endurance. On the one hand, this indicates a link between metabolism and genetics. On the other hand, it is too weak to use such genetic findings as indicators of changes in an athlete’s metabolism. It is much more reliable to directly measure the levels of substances in the blood of the trainee.