It might sound like Sci-Fi but genetically engineered athletes are looking all too real a posibility.

“The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) is consulting experts in the field of genetic engineering in a bid to prevent it becoming a future battleground in the war on performance enhancement in sport” declared WADA chairman Dick Pound.

He continued, “At the moment the fears of genetic manipulation far exceed the capacity, but our view is that we should act quickly and pro-actively to try help put in place the scientific and ethical guidelines that should apply in the future.”

Last years mapping of the human genome (body blueprint) bought the concept of genetic engineering to the forefront of medical science, but the basic technology to manipulate genes already exists. A conference of leading scientists, ethicists and lawyers in the field of genetic engineering is being planned in New York for September to try and place controls on such developmental technology, but you get the feeling they won’t have much influence behind the heavily guarded doors of less scrupulous labs.