For many years, discovering sports talent has relied on the coach's eye, the scout's diligence, and the abundance of school and neighborhood tournaments.

Despite the importance of these methods, they still rely on trial and error, and may waste years training a player who lacks the appropriate physiological attributes for his sport, while another player, who has the genetic predisposition, remains unnoticed by everyone.

Today, science poses a different question: What if we could understand the genetic map of Saudi society and its neighborhoods? Not to manufacture champions in a lab, but to guide each talent to the place where it can flourish.

The Kingdom is not a single environment; it is a small continent with its geographical and human diversity. Highlands, coasts, deserts, plains, and varied population history are all factors that may make certain genetic traits more present in one region than another.

This does not at all mean that one region is better than another; rather, it means that each community has its own characteristics that deserve scientific study, away from impressions and preconceptions.

Hence, the need emerges for a national sports genomics project that studies the genetic characteristics of populations in various regions of the Kingdom, linking them to physical and physiological abilities, while taking into account environment, nutrition, training, and psychological factors. Sport is not a single gene; it is a complex system in which hundreds of factors intersect.

These studies may reveal, for instance, that some environments have a greater predisposition for endurance sports, while other regions show traits related to strength, speed, flexibility, or training response. Then, talent discovery would no longer be a random journey; it would be a more precise and efficient process.

Imagine the amount of time and money that could be saved when talent discovery programs are directed from the outset to the most suitable environments for each sport, while keeping the door open for every individual to prove themselves.

The intent is not to say that a child from a certain region is only fit for a specific sport, but rather to use data to expand opportunities for success, not to limit them.

But this project must be built on clear scientific and ethical foundations. Science does not yet permit the use of genetic tests alone to select or exclude players, because athletic performance is not determined by genes alone; it is shaped by training, discipline, environment, nutrition, motivation, and available opportunities. Therefore, genomics should be a supporting tool within a comprehensive system, not a final verdict on an athlete's future.

The Kingdom today possesses one of the largest national projects in human genomics, and also has massive investments in the sports sector, as part of the Vision 2030 targets.

Perhaps it is time for these two tracks to converge in a joint national project involving sports sectors, universities, and research centers, aimed at building a scientific database that serves the future of Saudi sports.

The world has moved beyond the stage of merely searching for talent; it has begun seeking to understand it.

We are more deserving of reading our society with a precise scientific reading, not to create discrimination between regions, but to discover the potential latent in each region, and give every child the opportunity to find the sport that truly suits them.

Major sports achievements do not begin on the podium; they begin with a good scientific question. Perhaps the sports genomics question is one of the most important questions that should knock on the doors of Saudi sports in the coming years.