Nothing but the best in training, technology and sports medicine at the Olympic Training Center

Published by The Denver Post on July 22, 2016

Outside it was a beautiful spring day with Pikes Peak looming majestically to the west, but as Desiree Linden pounded out miles on a treadmill in a hermetically sealed room at the Olympic Training Center, it was a Sunday morning in August in Rio de Janeiro. And she wasn’t at 6,100 feet, she was at sea level imagining the Olympic marathon.

Linden was sweating hard in the OTC’s high altitude training center where technicians can create simulated altitudes from sea level up to 24,000 feet by regulating the amount of oxygen in the room. The temperature was set at 90 degrees with 73 percent relative humidity. That’s hotter than historical averages for Aug. 14 in Rio (80-82 degrees), but the thermometer could easily hit 90 the day of the women’s marathon, even though it’s winter in Rio.