Elite athletes are bringing Flagstaff’s high-altitude edge to Paris and the Summer Olympics.
Just as a summer day warms, Dan Bergland is explaining how Erythropoietin (EPO) works when a squad of rail-thin, ultra-fit young adults arrive at a popular coffee shop. Most wave as they make their way inside. Dressed in dolphin shorts and sports tanks, they have the unmistakable look of serious athletes – and they are.
Bergland greets Nico Young, who won two NCAA championships with Northern Arizona University, holds collegiate records in the 5000m and 10,000m and is about to leave to compete for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. Luis Grijalva, the Guatemalan phenom who just finished fourth at the World Championships, joins them. He and Bergland discuss the running scenes in Spain’s Sierra Nevada and St. Moritz, Switzerland, close to the upcoming Paris Olympics. Both are here because their coaches believe Flagstaff is the most prime location for high-altitude training, perhaps in the world. The company Bergland now runs, Hypo2Sport, is part of the formula.
Many athletes learned about EPO when cyclist Lance Armstrong was accused of injecting it for the Tour de France. Yet, as early as 1968, elite athletes have been coming to the high country at 7,000 feet to naturally increase their red blood cell count. Trainers say this transports more oxygen throughout the body, enhancing performance and endurance.
“When there’s less oxygen available, your body initiates a process to create more red blood cells,” Bergland said. “You benefit, not just from training here, but being here.”
Bergland is a physiologist and, now, principal owner of Hypo2Sport, after taking over last year from Sean Anthony, who operated NAU’s Center for High-Altitude Training before it was defunded in 2009 and he took the company private. Since then, Hypo2 has been organizing camps, services and training for athletes in running, swimming, cycling, Paralympics and more, and cementing Flagstaff’s worldwide reputation as the place to be at altitude.
To gain optimum results, Bergland says, “Live high, train low. At higher altitude, you can’t train as fast. You lose leg speed as a runner; you lose turnover as a swimmer. For high-intensity workouts, athletes need to go lower. They’ll live here, do easy workouts here and go to the Verde Valley for high intensity. You want to go down, then be back up within three hours to get all the benefits. You can do all that from Flagstaff.”
Bergland has been in Flagstaff since 2000. Although he has a master’s degree in exercise physiology from Arizona State University, he was using his business degree as a financial advisor. That changed when he connected with Anthony and started doing physiology for Hypo2 high-altitude training camps. While Anthony ran the business, Bergland was testing and refining the performance of athlete training regimens. Last May, he bought the business. “I knew all the coaches, I knew all the athletes, it made sense. It was a good move. I’m really busy,” he said.
Bergland works with the athletes and behind the scenes. “We could have anywhere from one to three teams in the NAU pool. I make myself available.”
Meanwhile, he is scheduling buses, organizing meals, booking hotels, arranging NAU dorm space and reserving time at training facilities like tracks and gyms. Hypo2 also works with professionals who provide massage as well as chiropractic and nutrition support. And, its connection to NAU has been critical, including access to the school’s Olympic-sized pool, which draws swimmers from all over the world, from Australia to Tunisia, and come year after year.
Bergland also helps provide a high school cross-country running camp at NAU. “It’s win-win. People are excited to come to the camp and it’s my way to give back to the running community.”
If the first rule of business is to find a need and fulfill it, Hypo2 is doing just that. The details of helping global athletes find their edge in elite performance and competition keep Bergland interested. “I work with all the top physiologists and coaches in the world and get to learn from them. When they’re here, I can do tests they can do back home but not here, like hemoglobin mass and carbon monoxide rebreathing. I’m always learning. It never gets boring.”
And if the key to valuable real estate is location, location, location, Hypo2’s position at 7,000 feet keeps the business uniquely positioned for future success, especially when the 2028 games are just eight hours away in Los Angeles.
“The goal is to keep getting better,” Bergland said, “better support for teams and individuals, better at testing, better at understanding altitude – you can always get better and that will keep them coming.” FBN
By Billy Miller, FBN
Courtesy Photo: These runners from Japan are among the many international Olympic hopefuls who come all the way to Flagstaff for the benefits of high-altitude training with Hypo2.