Usain Bolt runs faster than you. He makes it look easy but he certainly works hard at it. He also has an advantage you don't - the right genes.
Is that random? Maybe. Mutation and genetic drift and random walks are all aspects of how we got to where we are but we may be on the road to creating better athletes too. Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans writing in Nature News note that almost every male Olympic sprinter and power athlete ever tested carries the 577R allele, a variant of the gene ACTN3.
About half of Eurasians and 85% of Africans carry at least one copy of this 'power gene'(Berman, Y.&North, K. N. Physiology 25, 250–259, 2010).
Didn't hit the genetic Powerball like they did? You may want to take up synchronized swimming instead.
But more likely people will begin to use genetic optimization to try and boost their chances of having a star athlete. In that sort of Gattaca 2: The Olympics, how would we know who is 'natural' and who is genetically modified?
Olympics: Genetically enhanced Olympics are coming by Juan Enriquez & Steve Gullans, Nature News
