Altitudes And Attitudes

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31042, 23 April 1966, Page 16

Altitudes And Attitudes

The year after next, Mexico City is to stage the Olympic Games. Present indications are that competitors will reach there as confirmed hypochondriacs. Since Mexico City was chosen for the 1968 Olympic Games the sporting press of the world has shaken its doleful head and laboured over the difficulties of running, jumping—even standing still—at an altitude of almost 7500 feet. The Australians decided to train their athletes in compression chambers. The British, ignoring the success of the winning walker at Rome in 1960, who was said to have accustomed himself to heat by doing his training in a kitchen full of whistling steam-kettles, sent an exploratory team to the site, led by Dr. Griffith Pugh, whose selection for the task was clearly not based only on his authorship of a work entitled “ Muscular Exercise on Mount Everest ”, What measures the Americans and Russians propose to take to counter the difficulties of altitude are therefore almost beyond conjecture, for these countries have never left room for complaint that their preparation for Olympic Games has been sketchy. It seems now to be firmly established that sprinters will not suffer because of altitude. Lately, it has also been suggested that jumpers and throwers will almost certainly prosper. The only ones to be handicapped, apparently, will be distance runners, whose times may not compare favourably with those achieved at other Olympic meetings. That, at least, was the lesson taught by the Pan American Games at Mexico City in 1955. New Zealand’s Davis Cup tennis players would probably subscribe to the theory that peak performances at high altitudes present problems to athletes not fully acclimatised. But the Olympic Games and their value can never be assessed by broken records. It is a meeting of amateur athletes, brought together to share the enjoyment of competition and companionship. Inevitably, a Rarotongan would be at a disadvantage in Reykjavik; but surely that is part of the game. Wherever the Olympic Games are held, the site will be too high, or too low, or too hot, or too cold, for some of the participants. It is not Mexico City’s altitude which should cause concern; it is the attitude of those who will be there.