Are you a parent who wants to push your little one to be an Olympic champion, but you're just not sure which sport to push him into? Then the Colorado-based company Atlas Sports Genetics has an offer for you: Spend $149, have a swab taken from the inside of your child's cheek, have the DNA sent to a lab in Australia, and have a scientist analyze the ACTN3 gene, which is linked to athletic performance.
Kevin Reilly, the President of Atlas Sports Genetics, cautions that you can't read too much into a DNA test: "Based on the test of a 5-year-old or a newborn, you are not going to see if you have the next Michael Johnson," he told the New York Times.
But he also added this:
"if you wait until high school or college to find out if you have a good athlete on your hands, by then it will be too late. We need to identify these kids from 1 and up, so we can give the parents some guidelines on where to go from there."
Of course, those parents could just let their kids go out and play and discover for themselves what they're good at. But not every parent thinks that way. The company started selling the DNA test kits on Monday, and about 60 families have placed orders.
Want to Know if Your Kid Is an Athlete? Genetic Test May Have the Answer originally appeared on FanHouse Back Porch on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:58:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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