The future? Gene-edited athletes, eSports and the end of contact sport

Last week, a leading official in the IAAF, the world governing body for athletics, indicated that in the future athletics would probably introduce a third category of classification – male, female, and intersex. This got me thinking on other aspects of sport that might change in the next two decades or so, writes Jack Anderson.

The first of three issues that came to mind is gene doping in sport.

Gene therapy is a means of manipulating genes in order to identify, prevent, and treat diseases. It can also be adapted for non-therapeutic use and namely to enhance performance in sport. Put simply, gene doping may be a very 21st-century means of cheating in sport.