Word: oxygenated
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...events that require only short bursts of maximum exertion. "A trained athlete can run the 100 meters in ten seconds practically without breathing," explains Dr. Daniel F. Hanley of Bowdoin College, chief of the U.S. medical team at the Little Olympics. "You just can't build up any oxygen debt* in ten seconds. And there's no problem at 200 meters or even...
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...