The International Olympic Committee organized this conference on sport sciences, the fifth of its kind. It was held in Sydney from October 31 through November 5. We were funded by the Sports Foundation of New Zealand, through Sport Science NZ, to attend and present papers. The following report is a summary of the presentations relevant to athletes and sport scientists interested in performance enhancement.
Page numbers refer to the book of abstracts.
Effects of Altitude on Sea-Level Performance Five presentations dealt with the effect of adaptation to real or simulated altitude on performance at or near sea level. Living and training high didn't seem to help 28 elite male and female Chinese kayakers. A control group of 5 kayakers showed little or no changes. Unfortunately the language barrier prevented us from coming to terms with some unusual aspects of this study. For example, there was a fall rather than the expected rise in the concentration of the hormone erythropoetin, after 1 and 4 weeks at altitude.