Gene test for child's sporting chance

ELEANOR HALL: One of the country's leading Sports Medicines experts has warned Australia risks being left behind the rest of the world unless it embraces genetic testing for athletes. Professor Peter Fricker says testing could help identify athletes who have the potential to be strong at particular sports. Professor Fricker, who's been with the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra since its inception 21 years ago, is Medical Director of the Australian Olympic team for the Athens Olympics. Ross Solly reports.

ROSS SOLLY: Professor Peter Fricker's been around long enough to know how to get the very best out of an athlete. He's been working as a sports scientist at the Australian Institute of Sport since its inception. The AIS is these days widely regarded as a world leader in Professor Fricker's field, and he says sports science is entering a contentious area. Genetic identification, he says, will be the next big issue in sport, and there are already Australian experts deeply ensconced in the field. But Professor Fricker says it's such a controversial issue that any prolonged debate on the ethical issues could cost Australia dearly.

PETER FRICKER: There's so much work being done to identify what is it about the make-up of an athlete that will, if you like, signal the way they will respond to certain forms of training, okay, so that you can almost pick the physiology, if you like, of this is an athlete that will make a good endurance athlete, this is the athlete that would make a good power and aerobic sort of athlete. Perhaps there are genes for looking at those that have got the ability to learn technical skills in, say in gymnastics if you like, that sort of skill. As I say, the ethical questions about genetic manipulation and, you know, doping and its applications and so-forth are huge, and I think they will, well they're being addressed, but no, I don't think those questions have been answered.

ROSS SOLLY: Do you think this is an inevitable path that we're going to go down?

PETER FRICKER: It's happening, oh there's no doubt. There's research out there already identifying athletic genes, if you like, those that respond to endurance training. There's a gene been identified, if you like, that predisposes athletes to head injury in boxing. It's been done, I think if we're not careful, if we worry too much about "ooh, this is too dangerous, let's not go there", it's a bit like the stem cell research debate; we cannot afford not to go there. I think we've got to get our heads up and say "what is happening out there, where is this going to take us", and try and make the most of it in an ethical and proper sense. Ah, you know, I think to ignore it is at our peril.

ROSS SOLLY: Professor Fricker says a team of world-class researchers in Canada has already carried out a lot of work on genetic testing, and he believes they've uncovered much more than they're letting on; and the rest of the world is circling.

PETER FRICKER: I will take bets there's a lot of work being done in countries like China, that we're just not hearing about, as I'm not so sure the Soviet, the old Soviet bloc, eastern European countries, could afford to be doing the sort of things now, but there may be some activity in those areas. European countries are certainly taking notice of it and there may be some research going on in there, but I don't think it's as advanced in the applications to sport as it is in Canada and Australia at the moment.

ELEANOR HALL: Professor Peter Fricker from the Australian Institute of Sport, in that report from Ross Solly.