Book cover of The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance

Book description

The New York Times bestseller – with a new afterword about early specialization in youth sports – from the author of Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World.

The debate is as old as physical competition. Are stars like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, and Serena Williams genetic freaks put…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Sports Gene as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

There is no better book that combines the worlds of science and sports than The Sports Gene by David Epstein.

This book takes you all around the world to explore the physical and mental traits of diverse athletes with the goal of understanding how much of athletic prowess is written in our genetic code. The results are surprising and will flip a lot of your preconceived notions about nature and nurture.

I read it years ago but still talk to my students every semester about why, year in and year out, the best distance runners in the world seem to…

From Alex's list on the evolution of the human body.

If you love The Sports Gene...

Ad

Book cover of The Smart Mission: NASA’s Lessons for Managing Knowledge, People, and Projects

The Smart Mission by Edward J. Hoffman,

The Smart Mission brings together NASA’s most important lessons on how people, knowledge, and systems shape complex projects.

Drawing on decades of experience at NASA—including my time as the agency’s first Chief Knowledge Officer—this book explains why mission success depends less on process and more on culture, learning, and collaboration.…

Want books like The Sports Gene?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Sports Gene.

Browse books like The Sports Gene

Book cover of The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales Of Love, War, And Genius, As Written By Our Genetic Code
Book cover of Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ
Book cover of First Steps: How Walking Upright Made Us Human

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,276

readers submitted
so far, will you?