In swimming, Olympic medals are often won by fractions of a second. One strategy that is often employed to obtain that advantage is altitude training. Over the past decade, a large amount of altitude training research has led to a new paradigm—the"living high-training low" model. In this approach, athletes live at altitude to gain the advantages of altitude acclimatization, but train at sea level to maximize hard training. Indeed a recent summary of many studies concluded that the potential performance benefit from altitude training for elite athletes could be as high as 1.6% (the difference between a gold medal, and not even making it to the Olympic Games!). However virtually all these studies have been done in land-based athletes with remarkably few studies performed in swimmers. Nevertheless, many sports teams expend precious resources going to altitude without knowing whether they are using the right approach, or even whether they should bother at all. The key question we need to answer is whether altitude training really works for swimmers, as well as why, how, when, and for whom it works. The ALTITUDE Project aims to: 1) determine the effectiveness of altitude training using the Hi- Hi (living and training at moderate altitude), or the Hi-Lo (living high but training at lower altitude) model, in comparison with sea level training; 2) establish the physiological mechanisms involved; 3) ascertain whether altitude training affects swimming technique; 4) uncover any negative impact on athletes` health and performance; and 5) identify markers of individual response and adaptation to training at altitude that could help clarify which athletes are likely to respond to an altitude training swimming camp. To answer these cutting-edge questions, in an unprecedented cooperative effort in sports sciences, a high-profile international group of researchers belonging to universities and national swimming organizations of Spain, USA and The Netherlands, the High Altitude Training Center of Sierra Nevada, the USOC, the Australian Institute of Sport—among others—, have developed a major international swimming study called The ALTITUDE Project. About 40 elite swimmers from various countries and their coaches will participate in sea level or altitude training camps at the High Performance Training Centers of Sierra Nevada (2,320 m) and Barcelona (sea level) during January-February, 2011. The project is open to sports and scientific national organizations from all countries willing to contribute with recruiting and funding athletes, coaches and scientists.
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