Super Gifted or Super Cheaters?

            Generally, being gifted in anything in life is regarded with a positive attitude and a sense of pride, but when people are deemed genetically gifted all of a sudden people’s opinions start to shift faster than doctors can swab the inside of patients’ cheeks. In a time of groundbreaking DNA encoding and sequencing, “genetically gifted” individuals are a hot topic for the media. The media is making a mission out of portraying athletes as cheaters if they have been judged genetically gifted. Now let’s face it, taking steroids to play better is one thing, but how can anyone penalize someone for being born with an advantage? Liam Hoekstra is only one of the many individuals being faced with discrimination before the age of five for having myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy. His disorder means his body makes much larger quantities of muscle than most for his age. Although many are skeptical of his parent’s claims he was walking at five months and moving furniture before the age of two, few can deny the fact that he is able to do more than kids his same age. In a documentary of Liam, it clearly shows he being lifted up by his arms while maintaining the bent arm position he was in without so much as a wince of pain. Only extremely trained athletes are able to support their bodies that way. Liam is not only stronger than his classmates, but has to potential to completely out-shine them. The television documentary, “World’s Strongest Toddler,” has already interviewed concerned parents. They are voicing their apprehensions that Liam should not be allowed to play professional sports when he gets older. Since the documentary aired, more people have been posting comments, blogs, and articles about the unfair advantages Liam has. Instead of making people understand Liam's differences and how hard he would have to work at sports to be the best anyway, the media has used its powers for evil to make this issue even bigger in its quest to keep "genetically gifted" people out of professional sports. Nobody can choose who they are or the genetic mutations (whether good like Liam’s or bad ones like muscular dystrophy) they have. Sports are designed to be competitive and make the best player stand out and win. Is that not the whole point? Liam's genes make him naturally excel at anything and everything involving physical activity, so why should he be excluded from a future in professional sports because he is great at them?

            For many people the name Michael Phelps will trigger one of two thoughts, either the greatest swimmer of all time or the person-with-the-unfair-advantage-that-should-have-never-been-allowed-to-compete. It is said that the Olympic Gold Medalist was "designed" to swim. Just because he has a longer torso, shorter legs (less mass to move through the water), giant feet compared to his body size (like massive fins) and an ability to recover from exercise faster does not mean he is at an unfair advantage. The media has used Michael Phelps as way to make money by igniting a fire and controversy. They want people to form their opinions based off of a few who think his genetic makeup means he should not compete. The bad part is the public is falling for the trap and questioning whether or not it was fair for Phelps to participate in the Olympics. However, it is very fair because he would not be Michael Phelps without the genes he was given. Because of his title as an Olympic Gold Medalist, the media has formed cults of people demanding players like him be looked at harder, and even taken out of the game. If little Johnny turned out to have a positive genetic muscular mutation or favorable body proportions his momma would be pushing her son to play sports left and right, but because he does not have it she thinks anybody else who does is a cheater.

            These “gifted individuals” still have to train and work their butts to get to where they are. It’s not like they can be a couch potato and win gold medals. Most importantly, they don't try to cheat the system by injecting their bodies with steroids. They are the 100% the natural deal. Society doesn't judge mascara models for having amazingly long and thick eyelashes (or if they do they are just jealous). The models use what their mommas gave them, and athletes should be no different. So they have more muscle building proteins or an ability to get rid of lactic acid at a rate the rest of us would die for, it is what makes them the best at what they do. Just because the majority of Olympic Medalists or Pro-Football players have not had their DNA analyzed does not mean that they do not have genes that make them excel, too. If the media was not so heavily involved in suggesting their genes make them cheaters the topic would not be as heated as it is today. Sports are meant find players that are better than the average Joe, and these players are. Give these people a break; they did, after all, win the lotto of amazing chromosomes.

Horton, Jillita. “World's Strongest Toddler, Liam Hoekstra, on TLC: Hype or Hypertrophy?” Yahoo! Voices, 9 June 2009. Web. 15 Mar. 2012.
Worlds Strongest Toddler Lliam Hoekstra Tlc Hype

As a writer for fitness magazines and fitness web sites, the author reveals her skepticism about Liam’s condition and questions how genetically gifted he really is compared to other children his age. Nevertheless, she also adds that many athletes have always been physically better at the sports they play and that is part of the game of sports. Although Horton thinks the media attention brought to Liam is hyped up, she does not think genetically gifted athletes are at an unfair advantage when it comes to professional sports. The views she expresses shows that it does not mean anything that some people are able to perform better with the same amount of training as others. She introduces the concept that sports will always have a winner because that winner is better at the game because of their body makeup and hard work.