There is more than just the altitude at work here. Patrick Chan, who is undeniably one of the best conditioned athletes at the competition, and trains right in Colorado Springs, said (and demonstrated) that it was hard to get air in the arena. He pretty much said it was excruciating after the skate. My guess is something is very wrong with the ventilation in the arena currently. This can be fixed. There have been competitions in Colorado Springs before without anything like this.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for this. Since 4cc's has been held in Colorado Springs previously, I wondered why the obvious impact to the skaters across all disciplines was apparent now. I certainly don't believe it is because skaters are less well conditioned now than before.