Australian scientists use DNA to develop 'designer athletes'

The technology will allow experts to tell parents which sports their children could excel in.

Scientists have begun using DNA samples from Australia's top sportsmen and women in a bid to develop "designer athletes" who can protect the nation's sporting reputation,

HT Image

The Daily Telegraph

reported on Friday.

The technology will allow experts to tell parents which sports their children could excel in and whether they have the genes that are most likely to produce sporting superstars, the Sydney newspaper quoted scientists as saying.

Australia, a nation of only 20 million, has long punched well above its weight in the world of sporting.

It currently stands third in the medals table at the Athens Olympics, trailing only behind the United States and China and ahead of more populous nations like Russia, Japan, France and Germany.

But some experts have warned that Australia is destined to fall behind as a sporting nation if it does not embrace genetic screening.

Researchers at the government-financed Australian Institute of Sport and the Royal Prince Alfred Department of Molecular and Clinical Genetics in Sydney have already identified two performance genes which provide power and stamina, it said.