Monday, January 30, 2006

Performance-Enhancing Drug or Air Conditioning?

Saturday's edition of the Wall Street Journal had a front-page article that caught my eye -- a piece on the Finnish cross-country team and the use of "alpine cottages." (Newman, "Fake Mountain Air Gives Some Skiers Level Chance for Gold," WSJ, 01/28/06-subscription only).

    In cross-country skiing, a granddaddy of aerobic endurance sports, there is no such thing as a level playing field. Because mountain air boosts energy-generating red blood cells, mountainous countries like Norway and Sweden have a leg up on the Finlands of the world that are mountain-deprived.

    Several years ago, a Finnish scientist invented a way to give his country an even chance: a mechanical altitude simulator called the "alpine cottage."

    ***

    "In Finland we have no mountains," says Prof. [Heikki] Rusko, a trim 62-year-old who works here in Jyväskylä, 170 miles north of Helsinki, at the Finnish research institute for Olympic sports. "Why shouldn't we have the same chances as countries that do?"

    The alpine cottage is Prof. Rusko's mountain-moving device. It can take the form of a sealed-off apartment or just a duct-taped tent. Added nitrogen changes the mix of the air inside, reducing oxygen content while leaving pressure unchanged. The cottage lets low-country athletes live in simulated chalets, making extra red blood cells as they sleep.
But not everyone thinks these cottages are a good idea, or even within the spirit of competition. In Italy, where the Olympics are being held next month, the cottages are illegal. And a number of people thinks that the cottages are no different than the use of a performance-enhancing drug that can have the same effect on red blood cells.

But Prof. Rusko disagrees, saying that the more appropriate analogy is to the use of air-conditioning in a hot gym. It isn't harmful and it does not give anyone an unfair advantage.

So which is it? Should alpine cottages be treated like performance-enhancing drugs? Or are they more like air conditioners, which no doubt can increase the amount of time an athlete can spend training, and thus, improve their chance for success? Where does laser eye surgery fall into the mix (4/21/05)? How about bionic surgery (3/28/05)?

As technology continues to improve, where should sports draw the line?

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