That was a pretty brutal article.
I don’t understand what they mean by having the training camp “at altitude”. At what altitude? Too high up? Sochi’s at sea level, isn’t it?
Thanks if anyone can fill me in.
Normally I’d be inclined to say “suck it up” but it does seem like something went sideways for these folks, since they were so favored and have done so poorly.
The decision to train at altitude and compete at sea level was flawed and dispenses with previous sports performance research. Hypoxia inducible factor (from altitude training) increases iron absorption from the gut to theoretically provide for higher levels of red blood cells but offers no potential advantage when competing at sea level. The same hypoxia inducible factor does, however, impair Krebs cycle oxidative efficiency by upregulating the pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase inhibition on pyruvate dehydrogenase.