The first time that cytogenetic techniques were applied to athletes was in the 1966 European Championship in Budapest, and for the first time to Olympic athletes in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. For this purpose, in 1966 the Genetics and Human Biology Program was createdin close collaboration with the Local Olympic Organizing Committee.Although Mexican geneticist Alfonso León de Garay led the project, the head of the Program was Mexican geneticist Rodolfo Félix Estrada. The main objective of the Program was to study the genetic and anthropological components which determine an Olympic athlete’s abilities. This investigation included 1,265 games participants and covered family studies, cytological investigations, research on single genes, and analysis of finger and palm prints. The studies were carried out by independent teams, working in close collaboration with each other: the karyotyping technique used was that of Barbara Honeyman Heath and Lindsay Carter, both of whom carried out most of the work along with Johanna Faulhaber and Mexican geneticists Olga Olvera and Rosario Rodríguez. Another team headed by physician Alejo Romero studied the distribution of blood groups; biologists María Teresa García and Virginia Tiburcio carried out the study on genetic markers associated with enzymatic factors and sensitivity to phenylthiocarbamide. Other personnel participated with Ursula Mittwoch of the Galton Laboratory in the sex determination of the athletes using sexual chromatin and buccal smear tests. In terms of influence beyond Mexico, this project was very important as a site of transnational collaboration.
