ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with some familiar examples from the Olympic Games. It analyses how genetics has become the latest tool for the re-inscription and perpetuation of a racial discourse of sport, where it is regrettably seen as ethically unproblematic. The chapter aims to show that there are significant ethical consequences arising from the re-inscription of race through genetics, both in sport and outside sport. The programme combined socio biological explanations with snippets of genetic information primarily to ask the question that transatlantic slavery created a selection effect that determined the superiority of black athletes. Sporting contests are rarely seen as explicitly embodying racial meaning. The chapter presents the ethical implications of the continued use of the concept of race in sport. It concludes that it should be dropped altogether from genetic research, including in the context of sports and sports genetic discussions.
