ABSTRACT
Altitude training began after the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico when athletes
who lived at or trained at altitude were notably successful in endurance athletic
events. Initially, limited availability of resources meant that the opportunity was
only available to the elite athletes who had suffi cient fi nancial support. In order
to broaden access and reduce the inconvenience inherent in prolonged sojourns to
altitude training camps, sports scientists in Finland developed artifi cial hypoxic
environments, which simulated high altitude. Most recently, the development of
portable hypoxic tents and hypoxicators has opened access to athletes wishing to
avail themselves of the technology. This poses questions to governing bodies
about legitimacy, to end users about the risks to health and to the scientifi c com-
munity about their potential ergogenic value and indeed how that might be
explained. This chapter will consider the development and range of artifi cial
hypoxic environments, their ergogenic value, mode(s) of action, the ethics of
their use and whether or not they constitute a risk to users’ health.
