Earlier studies on the contribution of specific genes to sprint performance have been limited by small cohorts from mixed sport disciplines, most lacking quantitative measures of performance. To examine the association between ACTN3 gene variants and sprint times in elite athletes, 555 personal best 100m, 200m, and 400m times by 346 top Caucasian and African origin sprinters from 10 countries were collected. The sprinters were genotyped for ACTN3 R577X variants. On average, male Caucasian sprinters with the ACTN3 577RR variant had faster personal best 200m times than their ACTN3 577XX counterparts and no cases ofACTN3 577XX were found to have achieved the qualifying time for the 2012 Olympic Games (vs. 12 qualified sprinters with 577RR or 577RX genotypes). Using genetic models, it was found that the ACTN3 577R allele dominant model accounts for 0.92% of200m performance at the elite level. Although sprint performance relies on many gene variants, environment and other factors, the percentage variance in elite level performance explained by the ACTN3 gene is substantial. This project was winner of the Open category in the 2014 European Athletics Innovation Awards and the article published here is adapted from an article previously published in BMC Genomics.
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