Olympics pushed higher, athletes and coaches are more willing
to go to the extreme to win. An article published in the July
2012 issue of Smithsonian Magazine, The Future of Cheating
in Sports, was part of a series of articles that followed doping
in the Olympics, both its the past, present, and future. As its
author Christie Aschwanden states, “When drugs are under
development for medical conditions turn out to enhance
performance, rogue athletes and coaches are fast on the scene.”
Advances in technology, allowing those with disabilities to
move and walk thanks to artificial muscles or embedded
motors, are currently under experimentation, but already pose
the danger of being on the black market for athletes.
Ashcwanden cites this as an ongoing problem that will
continue into the near future, but then states the worry for
many scientists and officials in the sports world alike:
“Taken to an extreme, the search for talent might someday
lead to efforts to breed super-athletes, with embryos generated
through in vitro fertilization subjected to genetic testing for
athletic traits.” The desire to win could become so powerful
that our athletes in the future might be genetically engineered
to the point of being raised in a test tube. Athletes would lose