What Decides Your Athletic Career?—Reflection from Our Study of GP.Mur-Associated Sports Talents during the COVID-19 Pandemic Era

Kate Hsu () and Wei-Chin Tseng
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Kate Hsu: The Laboratory of Immunogenetics, Department of Medical Research, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Tamsui, New Taipei City 251020, Taiwan
Wei-Chin Tseng: Department of Physical Education, University of Taipei, Taipei 111036, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-11

Abstract: This opinion article discusses the factors that attract children and teens to athletic careers. The most important attribute for the making of athletes is polished sports talent, followed by psychological, environmental, and incentive factors. Our laboratory studies a red blood cell (RBC) type called GP.Mur, which is rare in most parts of the world besides Southeast Asia. Intriguingly, the prevalence of the GP.Mur blood type is relatively high among Taiwanese elite athletes. The highest frequency of the GP.Mur blood type worldwide is found among Taiwan’s Ami people (88–95% from hospital blood bank surveys in the 1980s). Though the Ami constitute only 0.6–0.8% of the Taiwanese population, from records of national track-and-field games in the past century, 10–60% of the medalists were Ami. Biologically, GP.Mur expression supports blood CO 2 metabolism, which may have implications for athleticism. As many of our study subjects are elite college athletes with the GP.Mur blood type, we contemplated their upbringings and career dilemmas, especially during the difficult COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond individual sports talent, the pandemic particularly tests personal characteristics and socioeconomic support for becoming an athlete.

Keywords: psychological trait; environment; community; sport talent; sport gene; imagery; blood type; GP.Mur; career (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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