Constructing Altitude Training Standards for the 1968 Mexico Olympics: The Impact of Ideals of Equality and Uncertainty

Abstract

Today training at altitude is associated with better performances at lower altitudes by the majority of distance runners aspiring to world-class performance. The purpose of this article is to give an account of how certain altitudes and time-spans became a procedural standard of this type of training in spite of scientific controversies. In connection with the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City altitude was a particular pressing physiological problem to be solved. Altitude acclimatization for athletes competing in Mexico City and standards for altitude training, I argue, was a result of the interplay between a ‘procedural standard’ and important ‘design standards’ in athletics where ideals of uncertainty and equality were important. Without the new standards competitions in endurance athletics in the Olympics of 1968 would have been perceived as highly unfair.