Olympic-sized doubts over altitude training

The widespread belief that altitude training increases the performance of elite athletes could be complete nonsense and just a placebo effect, experts argue.

After reviewing the best-designed studies on the topic, researchers concluded the science underpinning altitude training was not “solid enough”, particularly to make recommendations for elite athletes.

One study found track runners’ times actually decreased after training for weeks at high altitude.

And many of the studies that did show increased performance after altitude training were