For the third time in less than two years, Danish national coach Paulus Wildeboer has brought his team of European swimmers back to the high elevation water of the Lake County Aquatics Center in Leadville, Colorado. “The are only pools in the world at this elevation. It’s very rare to find something like that,” Wildeboer said, referring to the 10,400 feet elevation of Leadville.
“We are now sleeping a week before we get here in hyperbaric tents, and we build the altitude up progressively to help them adapt faster here then when we come up here. After altitude training, they keep sleeping in the tents so they train at sea level and sleep at altitude until close to the competition. Then 10 days before the competition, we take them out of the tents,” Wildeboer said.
It’s a program that seems to be working with his swimmers making waves, Danish Olympic bronze medalist Lotte Friis just won gold at the World Championships, crushing the competition in the 1500 freestyle, and enjoys the Colorado camp also because of other things, such as getting to try their shooting range: “In Denmark you are not allowed to have guns, so I think that was a great experience for all of us.”
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