On one of those November days that seem to cling to you like a cold, wet leaf, I have just driven through a small Canadian town in which some of us grew up and, admittedly, some of us never did grow up.

It was a town, and a time, where sport was dictated by weather -- and sometimes by equipment -- but never by genetics.

This being the week of the Grey Cup, we would be playing football now, the rules wisely adjusted to allow no-equipment, open-field tackle if played on the soft sand of the old schoolyard, two-hand touch if played on the street, telephone poles for goal lines.

Soon it will snow to stay. At that time, the street would become the hockey arena, with a switch of sides at the midway point to allow for the slope of the street, chunks of snow for goalposts and the vehicles all careful to straddle the posts as they passed by, drivers behind clear windows rather than dark, and waving rather than cursing.

Perhaps there's a connection.

When melt finally came, there would be this curious period -- not found on any calendar -- when it is both winter and spring and when, for a week or so, the hockey goaltenders would be allowed to use lacrosse sticks and both Canada's national games would be played at once.

The snow gone, the lacrosse sticks would come out. The heat of summer would bring baseball gloves and bats.

All of us were four-sport players -- five-sport if you count the week of hockey-lacrosse -- and all of us were equally adept and inept in all of them.

But this, of course, was long before genetic testing.

Gabriela Tymowski, a kinesiology professor and sports ethicist at the University of New Brunswick, has directed me toward what she fears may become the future of both childhood and sport.

Her concern is outlined in a brochure from Genetic Technologies of Australia, a prospering company dedicated to "delivering the benefits of the genetic revolution." Much of the company's work is deserving of praise, tests that can determine if someone has a propensity toward various medical concerns including epilepsy and cancer, tests that can verify identity and even help solve crimes.

But the one service that should send shivers up and down the spine of anyone who played a great many sports, even if badly, is the test to determine "human sports performance."

The brochure is titled and trademarked Your Genetic Sports Advantage and comes with lovely photographs of muscular rowers, sprinters and even a smiling little kid bursting first across the finish line.

"For the first time," the brochure promises, "a fast, simple, and painless genetic test can identify whether you may be naturally geared toward sprint/power events, or toward endurance sporting ability.

"Regardless of whether you are an accomplished athlete, or a beginner, your ACTN3 Sports Performance Test (tm) result could assist you in optimising your training to make the most of your natural ability within a wide range of sports.

"According to leading exercise scientists, the next major wave in improving sports performance will arise from an improved understanding of the genetic basis for fitness -- and the application of that knowledge to optimizing event selection and improving training regimes."

Some will say this sounds like East Germany, but others will point out that East Germany no longer exists. This isn't doping. It's quite different, and completely legal.

The thinking is that the ACTN3 gene can carry a "variant" called R577X handed down by both parents or by one parent -- or not handed down at all. If both parents pass it on, this is thought to be terrific for endurance; if it is not handed down, this can prove great for sprinting and power.

For around $100, parents can get a kit for taking a swab of their child's mouth, send the swab off and in a couple of weeks have a good idea of exactly which sports to send their kid off to and which sports to avoid.

Such knowledge, the company says, "will assist in tailoring training programs and competition tactics, allowing you to realise your full potential within your sport of choice."

There is a careful disclaimer so that parents realize this is but "one aspect" among many factors, including coaching and nutrition.

Still, today's parents are insane -- something we know without the need of swabs -- and you can see where this could go.

"Children have a fundamental right to an open future," says Dr. Tymowski.

"They have the right to choose their own life plans. Determining their sporting proclivity [particularly if their parents act on the results] would surely alter -- if not altogether foreclose -- such a right."

Scottish bioethics expert Andy Miah has warned that parents might use such methods to keep kids out of sports they might actually enjoy, even if not excel in.

No swabs in this town, in that time.

But just think of the scraped elbows and frozen toes that could have been avoided.

And the memories . . .