Word: oxygenate
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Except for cyclists, who find that decreased air resistance can make up for the effects of decreased oxygen for as long as five minutes, a competitor in an event that lasts more than about 1½ minutes will almost certainly turn in a sub-par performance. Says Dr. Hanley: "We found that boxers in Mexico City who were used to two-minute rounds really had problems when the rounds ran three minutes...
...lower atmospheric pressure (about 11 Ibs. per sq. in. at Mexico City's elevation v. 14.7 at sea level) and the reduced oxygen available for exchange in the lungs appear to have no effect on athletes' hearts. Scores of physicians from a dozen countries ran elaborate tests on the athletes in October, and the electrocardiograms were normal. The problem is simply that breathing is less efficient, or as Dr. Hanley puts it: "You get less oxygen per gulp, so you've got to take more gulps to get enough oxygen to the muscles...
Winner by Acclimation. Physicians and trainers will have to figure out the best way to overcome the oxygen shortage. The obvious answer is acclimation. People who are born and raised at altitudes like Mexico City's seem to have no problem, and people who go there to live eventually adapt to the rarefied air. The question that bedevils international physiologists is how long to allow for such acclimation...
...recent study, done for the U.S. Army by Dr. Robert Grover and Dr. John Reeves, shuttled high school students between Leadville, Colo., and Lexington, Ky., and showed that the boys' lungs exchanged only about 75% as much oxygen in the "Cloud City" (10,190 ft.) as in Lexington (955 ft.). A three-week period of acclimation helped little...
...City in the Mountain States, and Dr. Hanley has recommended to the U.S. Olympics Committee that team physicians and coaches meet next summer to decide on the most feasible acclimation program. "But," he concedes, "when the flags are up and the runners are going around the track, hemoglobin and oxygen uptake measured in the laboratory doesn't seem to count for much. So we won't know the outcome until the race is over...