Is the competitive gene inherited?

I will admit I am a competitive person by nature.  I blame it on my early involvement in sports and 4-H as a kid.  But let's face it... life is a competition.  So is it bad to be competitive?  I don't think its bad to be competitive, but I do think it is bad to be a sore loser and this is one thing my parents instilled in me as a child.  Even if we were upset after a game or competition, we could not show our disappointment in front of others.  We had to wait until we were in the confines of our own car or home.  This was hard at times, but I think it was a very valuable lesson. 

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to chaperone our oldest daughter's bowling field trip.  As she bowled, I could see her competitive side coming out as she was bowling with 3 boys in her class.  At the end of the first game, she ranked #3 out of 4.  I could tell by the look on her face, she was just thankful that she hadn't been last.  And I must admit, I had the same feeling as I knew she would be devastated to be last.

Although she improved her score by more than 12 pins from game 1 to game 2, she finished 4th at the end of the 2nd game which put her in 4th place overall when the scores from both games were combined. 

I could see how disappointed she was and the fact that she didn't get a spare or a strike in any of the 20 frames only made it harder to handle.  I could understand her disappointment, but what was hard for me to handle was that she started to pout and act like a sore loser.  I didn't want to embarrass her, but we did have a brief conversation over to the side about this and she changed her behavior immediately.  However I must admit, I am nervous about her developing a sore loser attitude.

So any tips or advice you are willing to share with helping me nip this sore loser attitude would be greatly appreciated as well as tips on improving her bowling game.