Originally Posted by The NY Times
Live at Altitude? Sure. Sleep There? Hmm.
Carmel Zucker for The New York Times
Sleeping in an altitude tent, a passive activity, violates WADA’s idea of “the spirit of sport.” Using a room that simulates training at altitude is active.
Three of the top United States cyclists in this year’s Tour de France use a special method to enhance their performance, and it is legal. They sleep in altitude tents or altitude rooms that simulate the low-oxygen conditions of high altitude. This prompts the body to make more oxygen-carrying red blood cells and can lead to improved endurance.
The cyclists — Dave Zabriskie, George Hincapie and Levi Leipheimer — are among the athletes featured on the Web site for Colorado Altitude Training, which makes the tents, known as hypoxic devices. Runners, triathletes, skiers, rowers and the Philadelphia Flyers are among the elite athletes who espouse the virtues of the company’s altitude simulation products on the site.
But soon, the altitude tents and rooms may be banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA. The agency’s ethics panel recently determined that the tents and rooms violated “the spirit of sport.”
The agency said it would reach a decision in September about whether to include altitude tents and rooms on its List of Prohibited Substances and Methods for 2007. In the meantime, it is eliciting comments from its constituents, which it describes as the Olympic movement, including the International Olympic Committee and “governments of the world.”
The ramifications of banning these hypoxic devices, athletes and trainers say, would be far-reaching, and many are upset that the antidoping agency would even consider such a move. It would mean that for the first time, the question of performance enhancement moves from the use of drugs, like anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, and methods, like blood doping, to something much more nebulous.
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