The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance

“Many other genes, however, are not biological destiny, but simply tilt one’s physical predispositions. Unfortunately, that moderate message is often entirely lost in a mainstream press that heralds each study of a new gene as if it completely supplants some aspect of human agency.” 

Throughout the book, Epstein mentions ways in which data about genetics is misconstrued or over-exaggerated to detrimental effect. He inserts his opinion here in the word “unfortunately,” signaling his disapproval of this media behavior. The Sports Gene itself contains a moderate message, which is that there is no single genetic answer, but there are lots of genetic partial answers, environmental partial answers, and unanswered mysteries about the human genome as it relates to athletic performance. 

“While physical hardware alone—like depth perception or visual acuity—is as useless as a laptop with an operating system but no programs, innate traits have value in determining who will have a better computer once the sport-specific software is downloaded.” 

Epstein uses the hardware/software metaphor throughout The Sports Gene, returning to it for purposes of explanation and articulation. It also takes on thematic importance, as the debate between “hardware” and “software” is unsettled and ongoing in much of the sports science world. In most cases, the simplest answer as to which gives a person his or her abilities is “both.”

“It’s always a hardware and a software story. The hardware is useless without the software, just as the reverse is true. Sport skill acquisition does not happen without both specific genes and a specific environment.” 

This passage is a clear distillation of one of Epstein’s main themes. It relies on a computer metaphor used throughout the book as a motif to articulate different aspects of the same idea. The tone is so confident as to almost sound weary or unsurprised by the fact that this one truth emerges in every sports gene study.