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July 8, 2022 By FBN Leave a Comment

The altitude simulation chamber can be adjusted to create atmospheric pressures, from sea level to 12,000 feet.Since the run up to the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Flagstaff’s elevation has put it on the global map as a place where top-performing athletes can improve their performance. In April, Northern Arizona University added a significant facility to further enhance the city’s reputation as a world-class venue for high altitude athlete training with the grand opening of its new High Performance Center.

The altitude simulation chamber can be adjusted to create atmospheric pressures, from sea level to 12,000 feet.

Entering the new state-of-the art facility’s Grand Hall across a walking bridge, student athletes find themselves at the canopy level of the surrounding forest, where there’s now an expansive space providing academic, weight training, recovery and nutrition needs all under one roof.

The Center is dedicated to maximizing the athletic and academic potential of 380 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division 1 students, who compete in more than 15 sports, from football, outdoor track and field to swimming and tennis. One key component is the Jennifer Marie Wilson Strength and Conditioning Center, which, at 11,500 square feet, is more than three times the size of what was previously available. It includes warm-up turf, plyometric space and 21 Sorinex weight rack stations. Then, there’s the Michael E. Nesbitt Athletic Training Center, which can help athletes to recover from and prevent injuries with three hydrotherapy recovery pools, hot and cold tubs for before and after workouts, and an underwater treadmill.

The altitude simulation chamber can be adjusted to create atmospheric pressures, from sea level to 12,000 feet. “Having that flexibility is very helpful for athletes,” said NAU Associate Athletic Director Matt Howdeshell. “With this we have the second largest facility of its kind in the USA. Only the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs is bigger. We can accommodate up to 15 people in the altitude simulation chamber, which takes about an hour on average to change elevation.”

With this new investment, the established success of NAU’s student athletes is expected to continue, especially in men’s cross-country as well as the women’s swim and dive teams, which have been dominating national conference championships for the past few years.

“We have a donor-funded laboratory in the building supporting faculty research, where undergraduate and graduate students get vital hands-on experience as part of their NAU degree programs,” said Howdeshell.

Sean Anthony was assistant director at NAU’s original high altitude training center for 12 years until 2009, when university budget reductions left him looking for new options. His solution was to create the sports management company HYPO2. With several former experienced sports management NAU staff, Anthony picked up where NAU had left off. Since then, the company has continued to expand its service, supporting the training camp efforts of elite Olympic athletes from all over the world.

“There was a proven client base and as a private entity, we didn’t need to be restricted by the educational mission of the university,” said Anthony. HYPO2 now partners with NAU to help provide venues.

Training at altitude is a proven way to help athletes be competitive at the Olympic level, where a 2% increase in performance can be the difference between getting a medal or even making the national team at all, say the training experts.

“We offer high performance services, including physiotherapy, chiropractic, sport psychology, physiological testing and blood testing, because it’s extremely beneficial for elite athletes to have measurable data to quantify physiological changes in the body at altitude,” said Anthony.

That includes VO2 max, lactic acid threshold and total hemoglobin blood testing. HYPO2 recently added sleep performance in partnership with a Silicon Valley tech company, Full Power AI, and Tempur-Pedic, using contactless sleep tracker monitors.

“Proper sleep management is a game-changer for everyone, but even more so for athletes who are in great need of recovery,” said Anthony.

In any given year, he has between 400 and 500 world-class athletes train with HYPO2, all of them in endurance sports like track and field, cycling, triathlon and swimming ,and mostly from European countries, along with Pacific Rim nations like Australia and Japan.

British track athlete Sir Mo Farrah, who has four Olympic gold medals and six world titles, has been a Flagstaff regular for some time. And, two-time Olympic gold medal-winning triathlete Alistair Browlee, also British, was training at HYPO2 as recently as April.

“British Swimming is another of our biggest clients. They are typically here twice a year and we’ve already got bookings for the lead-up to the Olympics in Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028,” he added.

Anthony is especially excited about a new development. “We’ll be working with the International Olympic Committee on their Olympic Solidarity athlete development program to provide assistance to National Olympic Committees for development programs, in particular, for countries with the greatest need for it.” FBN

Filed Under: Business, Local News, Tourism Tagged With: High Performance Center NAU, HYPO2, NAU, NAU Athletics, northern arizona university

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