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Appearing in this week's May 17, 2010 issue of Sports Illustrated is an article by David Epstein entitled Sports Genes.

After conversations with geneticists and biologists the world over, what Epstein finds runs counter to several universal assumptions about the role of genetics in athletic performance:

"Scientific research gives us a fuller picture of how we evolved into athletes, and it suggests that some things that appear to be largely genetic (such as East African dominance of distance running) might not be, and that other things that seem entirely voluntary (such as an athlete's will to train) might in fact have an important genetic component."

David Epstein has received widespread recognition for his investigatory stories on the performance enhancing drug industry ("What You Don't Know Might Kill You" – 5/18/09) and the often deadly risks associated with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in athletes ("Follow the Trail of Broken Hearts" – 12/10/07).

Among the other topics that Epstein tackles in his genes story include:

• Who has the "speed gene," and who doesn't?
• Can the perfect athlete be genetically engineered?
• How advances in gene therapy used to combat disease have attracted the interest of athletes-and sports antidoping authorities
• Epigenetics: how parents act and the influence they have on the behavior of their children's genes

Check out the latest issue of Sports Illustrated to read full version of the article Sports Genes.