How the 1968 Mexico City Olympics Changed Altitude Training Forever
More than 7,000 feet above sea level, one Olympics forced athletes and scientists to figure out how to compete in thin air.
Athletes World
• The 1968 Mexico City Olympics forced athletes and scientists to confront the effects of competing more than 2,200 metres above sea level—and helped usher altitude training into the modern era of elite sports preparation.
Before the 1968 Olympics, American runners preparing for Mexico City became part of an unusual experiment in Flagstaff, Arizona. Exercise physiologist Jack Daniels needed to understand what altitude was doing to them, so at one point he rode on the hood of a moving car beside mile world-record holder Jim Ryun, collecting the runner’s exhaled air through tubing and into rubber bags. Olympic champion Billy Mills later described how little they understood at the time: “We were totally naive.” (Los Angeles Times, 2024)
They had good reason to experiment. Mexico City sits about 2,240 metres — more than 7,300 feet — above sea level. At that elevation, lower air pressure means less oxygen is available with each breath. Scientists already knew altitude could hurt endurance performance, but the Olympics turned the problem into an urgent test for the world’s best athletes. (World Athletics, 2018) (Frontiers in Physiology, 2018)
They had good reason to experiment. Mexico City sits about 2,240 metres — more than 7,300 feet — above sea level. At that elevation, lower air pressure means less oxygen is available with each breath. Scientists already knew altitude could hurt endurance performance, but the Olympics turned the problem into an urgent test for the world’s best athletes. (World Athletics, 2018) (Frontiers in Physiology, 2018)
