Source: Langrenn.com
Due to the high altitude of the Olympic Nordic events in Torino, Norway’s women’s national team coach Svein Tore Samdal is emphasizing the importance of his athletes learning how to ski hard at altitude before they get to the Olympic start line.
Almost every athlete has experienced hitting the wall at altitude and Samdal is trying to teach his women how to avoid this.
-We have to complete some good and hard workouts before the Olympics, at the same altitude as the races will be in Torino, says Samdal.
Training at altitude will be important leading up to the Italian Olympics. The Norwegian women’s team will begin their altitude training in Italy’s Seiser Alm on the 25th of August where they will stay till the 3rd of September. From there they will travel to the little free-state of Livignio, both places being at an altitude of approximately 1800m. This is a few hundred meters higher than the courses in Pragelato and it is here that they will have to begin acclimatizing their bodies to going hard in these conditions.
There will also be opportunities during to ski hard at altitude during the season, the first being in Canada in December though it isn’t sure that everyone will travel to the event.
-We will be doing some prioritizing in relation to the best athletes when it concerns the trip to Canada, but the last races before the Olympics, in Davos, are at altitude and are important in terms of the preparing for Torino, says Samdal.
