Swimming: National squad to prepare at altitude

Freestyler Lauren Boyle is off to America. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The majority of New Zealand's elite swimmers will embark on a camp at altitude later this month in the United States to try to improve their chances of securing a medal at the London Olympics.

Swimming New Zealand needs a medal and finals places at the Games to be considered for future Sparc funding as a targeted sport. Senior performance coach Mark Regan and his squad are understood to have lobbied for the project. Top men's backstroker Gareth Kean and his coach Gary Hurring will also attend.

Regan's squad includes freestyler Lauren Boyle, New Zealand's best performed athlete at the world championships where she made three finals; breaststroker Glenn Snyders, who made three semifinals at the same meet; and the women's 4 x 200m freestyle relay team (including Boyle) who were finalists. The 10-athlete SNZ team will be based in Flagstaff, Arizona, a city 2130m above sea level. The camp is expected to run from November 27 to December 20.

The idea behind the altitude training is that the swimmers will increase their red blood cell count trying to absorb less oxygen. Proponents claim when athletes then travel to competitions at lower altitudes, they carry a relatively higher concentration of red blood cells for up to a fortnight. This gives them an advantage because they can use more oxygen more efficiently; better times are set. New Zealand want to test if such a plan will help them ahead of London. It will certainly give them more parity with the likes of Australia, Japan and China who have used such techniques for years.

Recently-appointed Olympic campaign manager Rushdee Warley says it is a key use of the $1.65 million in annual Sparc high performance funding.

"It's not undertaken lightly. We'll be monitoring the return on investment by checking athlete responses. We'll have official time trials to monitor progress on their return and there is a meet in Victoria which we will send athletes to around three weeks afterwards to check how they respond in competition."

Heart rate monitoring and efficiency testing are part of those measures. A high intensity camp is also scheduled for up to three weeks in Cairns before the athletes taper for London.

Helen Norfolk, a three-time Olympian and now head of the New Zealand Swimmers' Association, is in favour of the plan but says it can be temperamental.

"Going to altitude is the ultimate thing to do in a build-up to a big event. It is easily some of the toughest training I did. I used it in 2000 and 2001 and it resulted in some crazy personal bests afterwards.

"If it is mid-season, it is not too disruptive; it also becomes awesome to train because you have an increased physical ability. However, you've got to be wary of doing it before a main competition. You've got to time it right. For instance, I ended up feeling flat at the Sydney Olympics because the impact had tailed off.

"In some ways it can help if you trust your coach's expertise. Mark [Regan] has done this sort of stuff a few times."

Double Olympic gold medallist Danyon Loader also endorsed the trip, but for different reasons: "I liken it to going somewhere different from your usual workplace. Things can tend to get a bit dull if you turn up to the same cubicle and the same people every day at work. To be frank,it's good to get a break.

"Physiologically, it comes down to the individual. In my time, I went to the likes of Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico [to do altitude training].

"In addition to World Cup events, we did it as part of our training before the Atlanta Games. It was good to be based overseas as protection against the constant attention back home."