Olympic Sport Centre Planica
The Olympic Sport Centre Planica is maintained jointly by the Agency for Curricular and Extracurricular Activities at the Ministry of Education (Republic of Slovenia), and the Slovene Olympic Committee. It offers educational and recreational courses to children of all ages, and many schoolchildren from all over Slovenia visit this facility during the school year. It also offers excellent training facilities for athletes, particularly for Nordic disciplines. The Olympic Sport Centre Planica is situated in a valley in the Julian Alps in Triglav National park, home to Slovenia’s highest peak, Triglav (2 864 m). In one floor of this facility the oxygen fraction can be reduced to simulate base camp of Everest (5000m). Within any single room, the oxygen fraction can be maintained at levels simulating altitudes in excess of 7000 m. The Olympic Sport Centre also has a research laboratory, which can be rendered hypoxic, as well as a gymnasium (basketball court) that can maintain an environment equivalent to 3000m above sea level.
The research facilities at the Olympic Sport Centre Planica have been used for numerous basic, applied and industrial research projects. These include tests of outdoor equipment, studies of hypoxic training methods, cold injury prevention, and studies concerning metabolism at high altitude. These studies are detailed under the
