Just when you thought it was safe to go and kick a ball in the park for fun!
This is the sort of thing that will attract some parents and is there anything wrong with it? It seems that some serious biological science is finding its way into the gym and who knows, may be one day into school sports programs or the Football Club or High Performance Program registration process. Who knows, after all it's here now. I'm usually attracted to science in support of sport, but I gotta say, I feel pretty uncomfortable about this one.
A genetic company has played down concerns that its sport test could discriminate against children and budding young athletes.
Although genes alone cannot determine whether an individual will excel at a particular sport, they have the potential to determine whether someone is better suited to endurance or power-specific activities.
The sport gene test allows DNA swabs from inside a person's mouth to be anonymously sent to the firm's laboratory and analysed.
The test will soon be made available in gyms and sports stores around the country, but there are fears over-zealous parents will use the test to screen their children for sporting suitability.
The chief scientific officer of MyGene, Graeme Smith, acknowledges some people will want to gather information about future athletes as early as possible.
But he says the test will not be made available to people under the age of 18.
"We don't feel 100 per cent comfortable with the potential for a child to be discriminated against based on their genotype," he told ABC's Radio National.
He also admits there is no way to determine whether a parent has sent in their child's DNA instead of their own.
"In good faith, we analyse these tests thinking they're people over the age of 18. If we were to find out [they weren't], we wouldn't conduct that test," he said.
The Australian Institute of Sport has been in discussions with MyGene about the test, but says more studies need to be done to determine how effective it is.
AIS director and professor of sports medicine at ANU Peter Fricker says in future it could be one way of testing individuals for sporting potential.
But he says it would be used in conjunction with tests on height, weight and skin folds, for example, as just another part of the screening process.
"Our concern is when people get the test done, or are thinking about getting the test done either for themselves or for members of their family, what do you do with that genetic information when you receive it?" Professor Fricker said.
"Does it really determine the ultimate success at an Olympic level or is there more to it?
"We're saying that stuff needs to be validated, we need to do those studies, really work out how important it is having that gene in terms of determining ultimate success. That work hasn't been done."
MyGene has sold about 200 sport gene tests, but has not yet broadly marketed the product.
Mr Smith says he is confident his company is not promising anything to its customers that it cannot deliver.
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