Ireland gets rarified chance to sample altitude training at UL

Irish athletes have been given a considerable lift in their efforts to compete with the world’s best following the opening of Ireland’s first Altitude Training Centre.

The University of Limerick’s state-of-the-art facility is intended to provide elite athletes across all endurance sports who already use the Olympic standard training amenities on campus to add altitude training on site. Rather than embarking on expensive trips overseas to natural altitude training camps, the National Altitude Training Centre, which was undertaken and funded by Plassey Campus Centre, brings the acknowledged benefits of such training to the doorstep of Irish track athletes, swimmers, rowers, cyclists, triathletes and boxers, as well as team sports such as rugby, football and hockey.

“The success of this mode of performance enhancement is underwritten by the fact that altitude training has been used by virtually every medallist competing in endurance-based sports over the past 10 years,” Professor Phil Jakeman, Director of the National Altitude Training Centre at UL, said.