Candidate genes in human athletic performance

Genetic research has demonstrated that even though we all share the same genes, small DNA sequence variations existence in a gene's structure and can affect how that gene functions in the body. The most common sequence variations, known as single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), make us unique and different from everyone else. For that reason, genetics has been hailed as the science of the twenty-first century and attracted the attention of many researchers in different scientific fields, including sports sciences. Indeed, sports researchers have been asked for a long time a question that remains unanswered: what makes an Olympic champion? Nowadays, we are for sure that the answer is closer as ever. Nevertheless, we must not disregard one important factor: the environment stimuli interact with common genetic variants to determine individual characteristics including physical performance.