Eli5: Would any of the 250 million sperm I outraced into existence, have been, in any meaningful way different different than I turned out?

Question

We often hear the metaphor, “out of the millions of sperm, you won the race!” Or something along those lines. But since the sperm are caring copies of the same genetic material, wouldn’t any of them have turned out to be me?

(Excluding abiotic factors, of course)

In: Biology

Answer 1

The diverse Genetics in sperm aside, you didn’t outrace anything. It is not the first sperm that fertilizes the egg, it needs a huge amount of sperm to “crack” the egg’s shell and once the most lucky sperm got through the shell instantly hardens with a chemical reaction to prevent more sperm from entering. It is pure chance, not a race, much more so it is a team effort, as one sperm alone could not fertilize an egg. That is why sperm count in a man’s ejaculation matters.