Born high, born fast: Does highland birth confer a pulmonary advantage for sea level endurance?

Abstract

Less than 7% of the world's population live at an altitude above 1500 m. Yet, as many as 67% of medalists in the 2020 men's and women's Olympic marathon, and 100% of medalists in the 2020 men's and women's Olympic 5000 m track race may have been born or raised above this otherwise rare threshold. As a possible explanation, research spanning nearly a quarter of a century demonstrates that indigenous highlanders exhibit pulmonary adaptations distinct from their lowland counterparts. These adaptations may then promote endurance performance. Indeed, healthy indigenous highlanders often exhibit a larger aerobic exercise capacity compared to sea-level residents who travel to high altitude. However, questions remain on whether high-altitude birth is advantageous for sea-level competitions. In this review, we ask whether being born at a high altitude generates an ergogenic advantage for endurance performance in the Summer Olympics-a venue that is generally held at sea level. In so doing, we distinguish between three groups of high-altitude residents: (i) the indigenous highlander, (ii) the highland newcomer, and (iii) the highland sojourner. Concentrating specifically on altitude-induced alterations to pulmonary physiology beginning in the perinatal period, we propose that if altitude-related maladaptations are avoided, genomic and developmental alterations accompanying highland birth may present benefits for endurance competitions at sea level.