Finding Your Child's Athletic Potential

I read this story on one of my favorite radio station's website. It's their story, but I found it pretty interesting and wanted to share it with you.

Would you pay to find out your child's athletic potential?

Ava Anderson can’t run — not yet anyway. Or jump over hurdles. Then again, she’s only 13 months old. Ava was born with a genetic blend that’ll turn her into a star marathoner, and she may even blossom into a multisport, cross-training double threat! No - that’s not just her parents’ opinion. That’s her DNA profile. Like more than 200 other moms and dads, Ava’s parents, Hilary and Aaron Anderson, paid $149 to a company called Atlas Sports Genetics for a sneak peek at their kid’s athletic horizons. They simply brushed the inside of Ava’s cheek with two cotton swabs, sealed them in a baggie, and mailed the samples off to be tested. Five weeks later, the Andersons heard the verdict. Little Ava has all the makings to be a good strength AND endurance athlete.

There are 20,000 strands of human DNA, but the Atlas lab hunts for variations of just one: ACTN3. Why? Because some experts believe that this gene predicts certain athletic skills. The question is - how ethical is this sort of testing? According to MSNBC, it’s drawing criticism from coaches, therapists and genetic experts. Many worry that some parents will misuse the data, and pressure their kids to get into specific sports. Atlas president and co-owner Kevin Reilly says the test can’t, say, predict a future NFL star. It merely reveals if a child has the genetic markers common to people who succeed in either power or endurance sports. In short, he’s selling the product as a parental “tool” - a DNA roadmap to help expose kids to the sports they were born to play.

Although I might consider this if my kids were babies, it would be weird to do it now. What if I found out that they were not good at the sport that we already knew they were good at? That would be weird. Imagine the conflict that would occur? It might however, prove that this is not a perfect science. It takes more than DNA to be good at something. Doesn't it?