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Sports and Altitude

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Sideline Management in Sports

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Abstract

Recreational activities, training, and competition in altitude have become increasingly popular over the past 25 years. High altitude training represents a central component of athletic preparation nowadays, not only for endurance sports such as long and middle distance running, but also for team and anaerobic sports. Environmental factors and altitude do not represent the only concern for the athletes’ safety, but also the access to appropriate medical supervision in these conditions is often very difficult. Exercise and sport performed in high altitude have significant health consequences. Physiological adaptations within the athlete are induced and facilitated by the increased hypoxic stress in altitude that may bring improvements in the performance at sea levels. Despite there being a lot of articles and studies to date, the exact mechanisms which are responsible for such improvements remain to be fully explained. There is a high variability in individual response to altitude and this is dependent on several factors that range from fitness level, training load, nutritional habits, genetics, chemosensitivity to hypoxia and ventilatory responses, the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood, fatigue, and previous exposure to altitude.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences, and Public Health, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Marcello Motta

  2. Centre de Médecine du Sport et de l’Exercice (CMSE), Swiss Olympic Medical Center, Hirslanden Clinique La Colline Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Gregory Ornon & Jacques Menetrey

  3. Orthopaedic Surgery Service, University Hospital of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Jacques Menetrey

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  1. Marcello Motta
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  2. Gregory Ornon
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  3. Jacques Menetrey
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Correspondence to Jacques Menetrey .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Exercise and Sports Medicine Department of Orthopedics Rheumatology, and Traumatology, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil

    Sérgio Rocha Piedade

  2. Department of Orthopaedics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Elmhurst, IL, USA

    Mark R. Hutchinson

  3. Sydney Orthopaedic Research Institute, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    David Parker

  4. FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence, Espregueira-Mendes Sports Centre, Porto, Portugal

    João Espregueira-Mendes

  5. La Tour De Salvagny, France

    Philippe Neyret

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Motta, M., Ornon, G., Menetrey, J. (2023). Sports and Altitude. In: Rocha Piedade, S., Hutchinson, M.R., Parker, D., Espregueira-Mendes, J., Neyret, P. (eds) Sideline Management in Sports. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33867-0_32

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