"When ski mountaineering, or skimo, debuts at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina in Italyon Thursday, athletes will face off in a brutal test of aerobic capacity. They will schlep their skis up a snowy mountainside that is twice as steep as a typical incline treadmill's highest angle. And as they do so, they will move up to 10 kilometers per hour uphill while they suck lower-density, high-altitude air and carry more than 4 kilograms of gear."
"VO max reflects how efficiently the lungs move oxygen to the blood vessels and how well the vessels relay that oxygen to the muscles for intense exercise. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, VO max is the gold-standard measure of cardiorespiratory fitness. The average 40-year-old's VO max is around 35 milliliters per kilogram per minute. For some ski mountaineers, by contrast, it's in the 80s."
Ski mountaineering (skimo) will debut at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina and requires athletes to ascend slopes twice as steep as typical treadmill maximums while carrying over 4 kilograms of gear. Competitors move up to 10 kilometers per hour uphill and breathe lower-density high-altitude air, producing extreme aerobic demands. VO max measures the maximum oxygen uptake per minute during all-out exercise and indicates cardiorespiratory fitness. Average VO max for a 40-year-old is around 35 milliliters per kilogram per minute, while some ski mountaineers record values in the 80s. Higher VO max benefits both athletic performance and daily health.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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